True Magic
by SakataTetsuya
Summary: Seriously? He just went away for only a century and now magecraft has not only become widely known but also considered as 'magic? Hilarious. Magic, in a scene, is miracle and chaos. If it can be replicated and broken down into logical pieces it's not magic. He wonder, how will this world change when his 'magic' defy all of their knowledge about their 'magic? Harem decided.
1. Chapter 1

_Magic, in a sense, is miracle and chaos. If it can be replicated and broken down into logical pieces it's not magic._

 _The beginning First changed everything._

 _The following Second acknowledged many._

 _The resulting Third showed the future._

 _The linking Fourth concealed itself._

 _And the final Fifth had already lost its meaning._

 _Such power of the_ _ **True Magic**_ _..._

* * *

 **Chapter 1:**

 _When he had decided to take his leave back to the World, he had never expected to arrive in the middle of a fight, a war, an invasion, a conflict or whatever the hell it was. Basically, people around him threw themselves in a bloody fight and trying to kill each other for Root knows kind of reason. Probably by the order of those wankers sitting up high._

 _But what surprised him more was the fact that war was being fought with magecraft and what he assumed Mystic Codes as weapons. Just thinking whether those eggheads of the bloody Mage Association, Gaia, Alaya or Kischur motherfucking Zelrect Schweinorg had a hand in this mess or not caused an agonizing migraine forming in his head._

 _But despite all of those, he found it was quite hilarious to be honest. Hearing how people kept calling these magecraft as_ _ **magic**_ _nearly made him laugh out loud. Oh whether it was the humanity's ignorance or there was an invisible force's doing, he guessed he should feel thankful then._

 _After all, there was a reason why great powers needed to be restrained. And with a species that loved to play God, it was a good measure to prevent humanity from destroying the Earth and themselves too soon. With only magecraft, the fight he happened to see here was already chaotic beyond control. What if it hadn't been magecraft, but the_ _ **True Magic**_ _had been being used?_

 _It was such an unpleasant scenario that he didn't want to imagine._

 _Oh well, since he was in a bloody conflict, he guessed he should do something, no? Standing here like an idiot would be unproductive and boring._

 _Putting two fingers between his lips, a loud whistle that soon was easily drown by the sound of the battlefield still managed reached his ears. Within a few second, his signal was answered by the appearance of an unsightly monstrous white wolf appeared, standing in front of him protectively like a loyal dog. Its golden eyes filled with immense bloodlust as its sheer aura of something primal that was far beyond the understanding of humanity could effortlessly make any living being felt like they were standing in front of Death itself._

" _ **Primy**_ _, can you please be a good boy and clear a path for me toward that direction?" he crouched down and affectionately patted the white beast's head as it happily licked his face. For such a demonic looking beast, its fur was strangely soft like terrycloth "And please, spare anyone who bares no malice or ill intention, okay?"_

 _With a murderous howl that shook every single living being on the battlefield with terror, 'Primy' or usually known as_ _ **Primate Murder**_ _, the very same beast that had 'absolute right of killing over man' took off toward the direction he had pointed and started carving a clear yet bloody path with a mighty power that was worthy of the_ _ **White Beast of Calamity.**_

 _Shaking his head slightly at his friend's enthusiasm toward shedding human blood, he rummaged through his chest pocket until he found an odd looking music player. Now which song should he choose..._

 _However, before he could decide, his eyes caught a truly strange scene: Near a bunch of lifeless corpses, a red spider lily was still blooming even though the leaves fully appeared. What was this flower trying to foreshadowing?_

 _A miracle?_

 _Or an impossibility that could never be achieved?_

 _Perhaps this world was more interesting than he had anticipated..._

 _With that thought in mind, he pressed the 'play' button and leisurely followed the path Primy had cleared for him as the music helped him ignore the chaos around him._

 _ **Nozomu mono wa nido to modoranu/ The things we want are the things that shall never return**_

 _ **Towa ni kawaranu yo no kotowari/ such is the rule forever governing this world we live in.**_

 _ **Toukyou to iu machi wa kurushiku/ This city of Tokyo is such a suffocating place,**_

 _ **hitori namida mo dezu/ I can't even shed a tear, even in my solitude.**_

 _Heh, perhaps he should crash in Izu sometimes. He just hope it was still beautiful like the last time he had been there..._

* * *

*BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!*

Ugh... What the hell... Oh, that dream again. Damn, for some unknown reasons he had been reminiscing the time back then lately. Was he becoming an old geezer and having a 'rambling' tendency?

Well, technically he was about more than 100 years old but hey, his body and mind were still young and energetic like any other nineteen years old young man. And that was what counted, bawahahahahaha!

*BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!*

But then again, why did we people always feel so nostalgic about the past? Was it because we knew that the time of the future was limited, so we looked back at the past, at moments where we thought time could go on forever?

Perhaps.

*BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!*

Reaching toward his alarm clock, he silenced its annoying sound with a flick. However, since he didn't entirely get out of his sleepy state, he accidently put too much force and broke the alarm clock into pieces.

"Ah damn." He muttered. He had totally forgotten to use the Fourth on the alarm clock. With a casual wave of his right hand as a soft melody that only he could hear echoed in his mind, the broken clock along with its scraps immediately disappeared with another alarm clock looking identical the old one replaced it.

'... And done!' he mentally chuckled after giving the new clock a testing flick. No worry about breaking it anymore!

"Fou!"

A cute white soft fluffy creature jumped onto his bed and snapped him out of his thought with its yip.

"All right, all right, I'm out of the bed now, Primy." Came his chuckle as he gently stroke his buddy's rabbit-liked ears. He was thankful that Orimy could turn into his **Cath Palug** form in this world or else, the rumor of a monstrous demonic white beast that effortlessly destroyed anything in its path from both sides, which included a huge number of the Great Asian Union Fleet, in the Okinawa Invasion back then would stop Primy from staying here with him.

Anyway, time for a new day. The garden as well as the trees of the First High wouldn't maintain its beauty by themselves after all.

If only his work didn't start at 4 a.m...

* * *

 _Red._

 _All she could see now was red._

 _Was she dying?_

 _She had done all see could to protect themselves, yet it wasn't enough._

 _The terrified and agonizing screams surrounded her, but she didn't care anymore. The images of her family flashed through her mind like a slow motion video. All of those memories, both the happy ones and the sad ones..._

 _ **Yume no youna izu no omoide/ Such are my memories of Izu, as unreal as a dream.**_

 _A strange sound of music, she thought. Was it the sound of death finally came and claim her? And what was the wet thing kept rubbing on her face?_

" _Huh, Primy seems like you very much." A strong, clear and earnest-sounding male voice reached her ears "Civilian casualty?"_

 _ **Osanai no wa boku datta/ It turned out that I was the one who was the child,**_

 _Using all of her remaining strength, she tried to look at the owner of the voice but all she managed to see was a dark brown suit with sky blue tie and a fedora hat concealed the upper part of the person's face._

 _A strange inhuman howl came as if to answer the newcomer's question_

 _ **Sayonara mo tsutaerarezu ni/ And time is simply passing by**_

" _No worry, Primy. Even if you didn't want, I would heal her regardless." A mirthful chuckle as the stranger took out something from one of his pant pockets and crouched down to her._

" _This is your second life..." he felt his hand was on her chest as glimses of blue light escaped from his hand "Cherish it and live to the fullest, okay?"_

 _A soothing sensation gradually spreaded all over her body as she could feel all her wounds slowly disappeared as if they never existed in the first place_

 _ **Toki ga tada sugiteku/ while I couldn't even say goodbye.**_

" _Now the other two..." the stranger trailed off as he stood up from his position._

 _She tried to speak yet no sound could come out of her throat. All she could do was trying to reach forward the stranger with her hand before a warm feeling of safety engulfed her like a blanket and everything around her faded to black._

* * *

Snapping her eyes opened, the first thing Shiba Miyuki saw was the darkness in her room as her right hand was reaching toward the ceiling, as if trying to grasp the image of her unknown savior that had given not only her but also her mother and Honami a second life.

Putting her hand on her chest, Miyuki let out a longing sigh as the tip of her fingers touched the blue pentagram sapphire attached to a simple necklace under the fabric of her sleepwear. The blue jewel along with two more identical jewels left behind on her's, her mother's and Honami's chest was one of the two proofs proving what she had experienced was not a dream.

Turning her head to the clock only to find that it was only 4 a.m, which mean two more hours until the training time with her Onii-san and Kokonoe Yakumo before spending her first day as a freshman student of the First High. Getting out of her bed, she quietly approached the clothes closet and took out the other proof and also one of her two most treasured possessions, a dark old suit blazer with a very beautiful lapel pin on the left lapel that she made sure was preserved in perfect condition since the invasion three years ago. Even though there was a small old bloodstain that couldn't be washed away, she was still okay with it. Said bloodstain along with the blazer and the jewels were precious mementos the long black hair girl had of her savior.

Falling back into the bed, Miyuki cuddled the blazer lovingly and felt the blazer fabric touched her smooth skin. Even though the pleasant scent of red spider lily as well as the warm feeling had already disappeared long ago, she could still feel the strange aura of safety everytime she tenderly held it in her arms.

"Savior-sama..." with a blushing face, Miyuki buried her face almost childishly into the blazer as she took a sniff from it, letting the safe sensation cover her before falling into the embrace of the dreamland, where she continued to chase after her unknown savior before she was left behind.

* * *

"Ah... Ah... Um... Hero-sama~... Ah..."

In the room next to Miyuki's, wanton moans were echoed in the room as the young woman with short violet hair lied in her bed, her bed sheet was drenched with sweat and female juices while her hands were touching herself in 'inappropriate' places. If her room wasn't under the silencing spell, her moan would be heard through the house.

"Ah... Aaaaaaaaahhhhhh!"

When her release finally came to a stop, Honami tiredly raised her hand up and held her most precious treasure tightly. An outsider might think it was just a broken blue sapphire attached to a simple necklace but to her, it was a proof that she had been saved not once but twice by her hero. Her eyes was glazed with lustful pleasure as a memory resurfaced in her mind

' _You seem like a soldier yet I feel there are chains holding you back... Live... to break free of those chains and choose your own way to live, okay?'_

A blissful smile appeared on her face as Honami muttered quietly before entering the dreamland where her adored hero held her with his strong arms.

"I will, Hero-sama... I will..."

(End chapter)

* * *

 **Author's note:** ～(￣▽￣～) **Another plot bunny. I hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter Huehuehue.** (～￣▽￣)～ **Anyway, the 'Magic, in a sense, is chaos. If it can be broken down into logical pieces it's not magic.' phrase belongs to my lovely friend and fellow author, Solita Belle. If you like Doctor Who, don't be shy to checkout her splendid story _"A second chance for us"_. While this story most likely will have harem pairings but the single pairing will still remains as an option so... let's see where my muse will lead me to.**

 **Finally, please read and review!**


	2. Chapter 2

_**Journal Entry September 30**_ _ **th**_ _ **, 2092**_

 _The invasion ended, things finally calmed down as reconstruction is on the way. However, the explosion, which had the power equal to the power of a WMD and easily destroyed the remain of the Great Asian Union Fleet, is not something can be forgotten easily. Therefore, I began my trip to London or more precisely, the Clock Tower, in order to find the answer for my questions._

 _Why didn't the Mage's Association act when magecraft became widely known? Just how did things get out of control like this?_

 _While I was tempted to just pop in with a small help of the Second, I decided to use the normal doorway in the end so that I could check how tight the Clock Tower's security was. However, my plan met a big obstacle: The British Museum had been destroyed very long ago back in the World War Three in 2046 and rebuilt in 2066. I spent 2 days to look into every single corner of the new museum yet I couldn't find anything that seemed like secret pathway or might let me access the underground. Even stranger, I couldn't access to any other emergency doorways around the museum, as if all of them were blocked yet he sensed no bounded field or any kind of security magecraft. Somethings wasn't right._

 _Without any other choice, I warped in the underground facilities only to find another big surprise._

 _Dark and empty._

 _Except for the 'Bottom of the Bridge' secret area, which was used to keep the designated magi away, still sealed tightly shut without any sign of forced entry, the whole place was bloody empty. From the most access places to the places only the upper wankers could access, there was no sign of people or dead people, no magecraft related object or even magecraft non-related object! Absolutely nothing! As if the place had been cleaned thoroughly to erase all the evident!_

 _Just what happened? Did the Clock Tower move away? If that's the case why left? Why not destroying the place after living? And what about the sealing designated magi too?_

 _My first day to seek answer yet all I got were more questions..._

* * *

 **Chapter 2:**

After two hours of maintaining the plants in the school, he could finally have a rest. Putting the rake to his side, he took out a flask and took a small swig. A small sip of Calvados with its trademark apple aroma in the morning could do wonder in erasing mild tiredness. Turning his eyes toward the clear blue sky with a few sheep-liked cloud floating lazily without a care, he let out a contend sigh as he felt the morning wind lingered on his face while his ears continued enjoying the great melody coming from his dear music player.

 **Boku wa nande konna chi ni ashi tsukezu furafura shiteru no/ Why do I continue to wander, not sticking to any one place for long, you ask?**

 **Ie no naka nekotachi dake machi tsuzukete iru/ The only ones waiting for me back home are those cats of mine**

 **Sou da yatto mietekitazo tabi ni deru riyuu ga hora/ At last, the very reason I set out on my journey has come into view**

 **Kimi ni aeru nara shiawase/ If I can meet you like this, that's all the happiness I need**

 **Mou nido to iwanai/ I don't have to say it again**

Ah, this was bliss, though he had to disagree with the 'those cats' part of the song since he had no cat but an unsightly monstrous wolf in the form of a cute white fluffy animal...

"Fou!" came the yip beside him before Primy returned to munching his dumpling. Yeah yeah, heard you there Primy, no need to be offended like that since it was the truth in its finest...

Anyway, better to enjoy this peaceful moment as much as he could, given that later today, a new school year would start and the greenhorn 'magician' would come here to join the First High. Thus he couldn't just have his music played aloud at anytime he wanted when he was working.

Damn.

And speaking about music... FOR THE LOVE OF ROOT, WHAT THE HELL HAD THOSE WANKERS IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY HAD DONE IN A WHOLE CENTURY?! WHAT WAS THIS SOULLESS ATROCITY THAT THEY CALLED MUSIC?! PLEASE DON'T TELL HIM THOSE BASTARDS HAD BEEN TRYING TO COMBINE MUSIC AND 'MAGIC' INTO 'MUGIC'?! Don't get him wrong, for he knew everything would have to change sooner or later but hell, changing just for the sake of changing was not a nice thing...

Luckily for him, the sound of next song was more than enough to calm him down as he let the nostalgic sensation engulf him.

 **We passed upon the stair**

 **We spoke of was and when**

 **Although I wasn't there**

 **He said I was his friend**

 **Which came as a surprise**

 **I spoke into his eyes**

 **I thought you died alone**

 **A long long time ago**

Taking out his rien pipe, he put it between his lips as his finger started moving along the melody. Even though he had quitted smoking a long time ago, he still kept his rien pipe mostly because he have become quite attached to it and just couldn't part away with it.

 **Oh no, not me**

 **We never lost control**

 **You're face to face**

After all... memories did help people grieve.

 **With the man who sold the world.**

* * *

Walking in a relaxed pace, Honami let out a tired sigh as her bento box was held in her right hand. While she could eat inside the cafeteria or the teacher rooms, she preferred to eat outside so that she could enjoy the fresh air outside. However, it took her quite a while until she finally found an empty bench and sat down. Being a teacher, even though it was just her guise so that she could stay near the Shiba siblings in order to continue her duty as Guardian , was much harder than she had anticipated. However, this was just her first day and she still enjoyed her job very much. And it seemed both the siblings were doing just fine, though she hoped Miyuki could control herself whenever someone insulted her brother.

Time sure flew fast, she thought wistfully.

Three years ago, just when she had thought she would have to forfeit her second chance in life to maintain the defense for Tatsuya, the shattering sound of the sapphire in her pocket had reached her ears before _his_ encouraging voice had echoed in her mind again, giving her the power and the drive to endure.

' _... Live... to break free of those chains and choose your own way to live, okay?'_

Such simple words, yet they gave her the power to change her life. If it hadn't been for those words (along with some help from Miya-sama), she would have been sent to a research institute to be studied how she, who was just a modified magician genetically constructed in at a research institute, had been able to survive after continuously using magic in such long time since all the tests which had been conducted by the Yotsuba on Miyuki's and Miya-sama's sapphires showing that they were just normal jewels without any kind of magical property. Despite that, her intuition knew the sapphire was what had saved her life back then and she knew that both Miya-sama and Miyuki knew that too.

And speaking of Miyuki, sometimes Honami was really jealous with the younger girl since Miyuki was the one who kept her Hero-sama's blazer. If only...

"Huh. Haven't seen your face around here."

A new voice snapped Honami out of her thought as she immediately became on high alert. How could someone easily approach her without being noticed by her like that?

"Are you a new instructor?" asked the newcomer, a black hair young man about her age in gardener clothes with some dirt sticking here and there, a rake was in his right hand while on his shoulder was a strange white animal that nearly made her blush. It looked really cute after all.

"Ah yes. This is my first day working at this school." Honami gave the young gardener a friendly smile but internally, the wariness still remained. She was a Guardian yet she couldn't detect him coming. Just who was this person? "I'm Sakurai Honami. And you're..."

And more importantly, why did she feel a strange sense of familiarity from this person as well as his voice? Had she met him before?

" **Watarimono Yuuto** , though Watari, Yuuto or 'gardener' is just fine." The gardener chuckled mirthfully "One more teacher won't help solving the issue much but any help is still better than nothing I guess..."

"Fou!" yipped the animal on his shoulder while Honami mentally frowned. Issue? What did he mean by that?

"Ah yes, and this cheeky furball is Primy." The strange animal held his nose up proudly before it jumped down next to her and gave her bento box a weird yet cute look.

"Fou!" yipped Primy almost playfully as he/she stood on her hind legs, clearly was asking for food. The action made Honami giggled in amusement as she could feel the blush was forming on her face. This little creature was just too adorable!

"Okay that's enough, you little cheeky bastard. You've already had your meal." Shaking his head slightly, Yuuto picked Primy up back to his shoulder right before she could give Primy something, which earned him an angry 'Fou!' "Anyway, I have other businesses to attend so I will take my leave. See you later, Sakurai-san."

"Likewise, Watari-san"

With a small nod, the young gardener left as Honami's gaze was still on him until until he was out of sight.

Just what was this feeling?

* * *

Aaaaahhhh! Some cider mixed with bourbon, angostura bitters, brown sugar and he had a splendid drink served with ice for a relaxing night. If only the clear night sky like tonight had had more stars shining, things would have been perfect.

Putting his cup to the side after taking another sip, he leaned back into his seat and relaxed. He must admitted that he had been surprised that no major incident had occurred between those 'Course 1' and 'Course 2'. Granted, it had been only the first day of the new school year but with what he had seen back when he had visited the cafeteria for a bite, any normal person would assume a fight would break out sooner or later yet there had been none. To be honest, he found it was rather hilarious and ironic (if not outright stupid) that the initial causes of the discrimination were the lack of availability of instructors and the misconception that no one bothered to clarify/ fix. And while he understood the reason the school split the students like that, he couldn't agree with it since anyone with half-competent mind could easily see this method would only bring more harm in the long run...

... He guessed he had put too much faith in those lazy egghead instructors. And here he had thought the Clock Tower had done worse.

"Cheer." He downed the rest of his drink before standing up. Perhaps he should sharpen his combat skill sometimes later since he did have some interesting theories to test after all. Who knew? Maybe he could use them to fix the trees much more faster if his theories were proven corrected.

And for the place to sharpen his skill... Now that reminded him, perhaps he should summon someone to be his companion as well as sparring partner? Primy was cool as his best buddy but a human-language speakable companion was still preferable. But who... Hmmm...

Bah, he would thought about it later.

* * *

Another uneventful workday ended, he thought plainly before finishing the remaining Calvados in his flask. He needed to place a pre-order soon to resupply his apple brandy cache even though he still had enough for another two months. The Calvados was very rare in this time and hell, sometimes having money didn't mean he could easily get his hand on them.

 **Hora datte Happy Halloween/ Hey 'cause it's Happy Halloween,**

 **Tokei mo mawaru tick-tack/ the clock too continues to spin, tick-tack**

 **Acchi mo kocchi mo trick or treat/ trick or treat here there and everywhere,**

 **Memokuramu panpukinpai/ pumpkin pies that dazzle the eye**

After making sure that everything in the gardening shed was in right place, he took a last look at the mirror before reaching for his music player while Primy quickly jumped up on his left shoulder. Some would surely consider him as a weirdo if they knew him listening to a song about Halloween in April but to be frank, he did't give a damn. Those rapper wannabe of this time had much to learn if they even wanted to reach the level of an indie old rappers like this Hashiyan fellow back then.

 **Datte Happy Halloween/ 'Cause it's Happy Halloween,**

 **Dakara yofukashi shichau janai/ so why not-let's stay up late**

 **Tsukareta jakku mo nenai wa asa made/ The tired Jack won't sleep either all until morning**

Letting out a sigh, he stopped the music before got out of the shed and locked it. Even though this was the time the school ended, it didn't mean he could play it out loud. What a shame.

On a side note, it seemed the 'Course 2' still managed to keep their cool even though the discrimination had become more notable. However, if those lads of Public Morals Commitee didn't step up their effort soon, it would be the matter of times until things became ugly...

"Fou!" yipped Primy as he pointed his paw toward the front gate where a commotion was happening with one of the Bloom holding what seemed like a CAD with she shape of a fucking gun. Ah, fuck his luck.

"I do not acknowledge a weed like you, Shiba Tatsuya!" said the 'bloom' wanker while pointing his CAD at a 'course 2' student. While he didn't know the whole story behind this, the tone of this asshole along with the fact the wanker was the one pointing his CAD were enough to tell who he should side with. "If you want to know..."

"Ma, ma, ma." The attention quickly turned to him thanked to his chide as he could see quite a number of blushing face. Ah, the power of Primy's cuteness. "Pointing weapon at other's face for no reason is not exactly a polite gesture you know?"

"And who the hell do you think you are?" a slight increase in his volume and the wanker would basically scream at him. And damn, this motherfucker had an ugly face when he was enraged "I am Morisaki Shun of the Morisaki Family, one of the Hundred Families!"

Oh wow, what a big shot this wanker was, he thought sarcastically.

"Who? Me? Just an ordinary gardener of this school who happens to be older than you, even if slightly.." He chuckled with a hint of humor in his eyes. "Regardless of your family, you're still on the schoolground and you still have to follow the school rules. Unless you want to have a cup of tea with those lads from Public Morals Commitee, lower your CAD is a much better option don't you agree?"

After a few seconds of silence, the wanker named Shun let out an irritating huff before walking away with his underlings following like a bunch of loyal dogs. Smart choice, he thought. Though he couldn't deny that he had hoped the wanker would do something stupid so that he could have some fun. Gradation Air or also known as Projection was very fun to use whenever he needed to troll or scare the shit out of his opponent.

"Thank you for your help, gardener-san." Said the unnaturally beautiful black hair girl in gratitude with a bow, which gave him a kick back to reality. And also, had he met her before? She seemed kinda familiar...

Nah, probably not. Maybe it was just his imagination.

"No need to thank me." He waved his hand dismissively before putting his rien pipe back on his lips "A piece of advice: just ignore those wankers like that. The meowing cat can't get the rat **(*)** after all."

"Thank you for your wise words. And may I ask what 's your name?" said the male student who he assumed was Shiba Tatsuya... Hmm, how intrigue...

"Watarimono Yuuto, though 'Watari', 'Yuuto' or 'gardener' is just fine. Whichever you prefer." Came his nonchalant reply "If there's nothing else, see you around."

Now where did he park his baby...

"Please wait, Watari-san!"

"Yes?" he turned back to the black hair girl, whose gaze had a mixed expression that he couldn't read

"I'm Shiba Miyuki" he tilted his head slightly. Another Shiba? Siblings perhap? "... Have we ever... met before?... You seems familiar..."

Wow, didn't expect she would feel the same, he chuckled mentally.

"... Perhaps." He shrugged before turning back. Seeing each other by chance on the street was a very likely case.

After all, 'meet' and 'know' were two entirely different thing.

(Chapter end)

* * *

 **Author's note: (*): it basically is the same as 'Empty vessel makes most sound'. Anyway, I honestly didn't expect the first chapter of this fic would gain attention quicker comparing to my other fanfics. Also, suggestions for 'companion' are always welcomed, as long as it will be one only. Finally, please read and review!**


	3. Chapter 3

_**Journal Entry October 10**_ _ **th**_ _ **, 2092**_

 _After 3 days searching yet got no result, I 'accidentally' stumbled on a secret workshop near the Bottom of the Bridge area. It took me a whole week to disarm all possible traps both outside and inside before opening it._

 _When I stepped in the research, everything concerning magecraft as well as the research was surprisingly still in place under a dust layer just as thick as outside. There was no way in hell the owner would leave behind all of these if the Clock Tower had moved away, especially if the owner was really Barthomeloi Lorelei, the very Vice-Director of the Clock Tower..._

 _Flipping through the pages of her journal, I checked the date of the last entry to see it was January 18_ _th_ _, 1998. It was 94 years ago and 1 year before the first verifiable use of magecraft recorded by the USA! Lorelei had been 19 back in 1997 according to brother. Therefore, she would be 114 years old now if she was still alive, which was quite an unlikely case. With that in my mind, I tried to use the Third to call for her soul and the result confirmed my suspicion: Lorelei was dead. However, her soul still managed to give me the answer for all of my questions, even though that answer was the most impossible answer that I couldn't expect even in my wildest dream._

 _The Mage's Association had been annihilated by a surprised attack in the January 1998 by something that even Lorelei hadn't been able to identify. Despite that, she was certain that the attack most likely had had the help from an inside rat as the attack had been so sudden and swift with all the security measures and emergency escapes had gone down at the same time, not to mention the time was right after a mass food poisoning in the Clock Tower. Without any other choice, Lorelei had decided to invoke the safeguard of the facility to destroy everything and everyone inside the Clock Tower so that the existence of magecraft would not be leaked out..._

 _... which was clear as day that the safeguard had failed if this secret workshop still remained. Regardless, the frightening question still remained:_

 _Just what kind of entity had attacked the Clock Tower to the point Lorelei had had to use such a desperate method like that?_

 _The Ancestors? The Spirits? Or the Counter Guardians? Or something even more dangerous?_

 _Brother... I wonder, had you foreseen this? Was this why you wanted us to go before the end of 1997?_

 _If only I could call you back with the Third to get the answer..._

 **Chapter 3**

Apparently, his 'guest' thought that 2 a.m was the most suitable time to crash in his home. Motherfucking awesome. He could only hope this would end quick so he could back to lala land.

"Hey! Why did you give me orange juice and cookies while you have such a good hot chocolate like that?!" exclaimed his guest childishly with a glare "I demand to be treated equally like an adult!"

"Choose a better time to come as well as grow up a few fucking more inches and I will consider." he snarled sardonically before taking a sip from his steaming cup. Meanwhile, Primy was playing rodeo with or more precisely, trying to get rid of a white rat riding on him. It looked quite hilarious actually. A white rats wore a crown on the top of his head and a red cape around its neck, its front paws held a needle and a piece of deluxe cheese pizza as if they were sword and shield while said rat was trying not to be thrown down by Primy. A perfect adorable and comical image of a King trying to tame his wild horse.

At lease the rat knew not to stab Primy with that needle or things would turn into one hell of a mess.

"It's not my fault that I became a Dead Apostle Ancestor when I was still fourteen! And moreover, I'm still older than you!"

"Then please act like one, Merem." He pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. He needed another drink.

"That would be too boring~!"

... He swore to the Root, he really wanted to give this whimsical vampire an uppercut before shoving 10 tons of garlics down his throat now. Serious.

"Forget it." He grumbled "Why the hell do you come here?"

"Can't I just come to see how the brother of my favorite human buddy is doing?" laughed Merem merrily before he raised his right arm up "Okay okay, just joking. No need to raise a sofa up with a scary face like that."

"Then spill."

With a sigh, the carefree expression on the fourteen-year-old looking Dead Apostle was replaced by a more serious one as he put a photo on the table.

"Caubac Alcatraz has re-emerged." He picked the photo up to inspect the face of the twenty-seventh Dead Apostle Ancestor "He was sighted at Narita Airport three days ago."

"Should I be worry then?"

"I believe you should, but not about him." Shrugged Merem "While Alcatraz is interested in the events of the world, it have never enough to make that weirdo want to leave his hole unless he wants to see the Moon in its most beautiful form, which is very unlikely since it will be two more months until the next. Not to mention he does have his ways to keep track of the world so it's unnecessary for him to go out..."

Calling other a weirdo, Merem? That was the pot calling the kettle black.

"... unless there is something so 'interesting' that he must witnesses with his very own eyes." Continued Merem somberly after taking a sip of his juice. "And don't ask me what kind of 'interesting'. I don't know the answer."

"So informative." The sarcasm was evident in his voice "What about the other Ancestors and Burial Agency? What are they thinking?"

"Burial Agency hasn't known this yet while the Ancestors... Outwardly? Seem like they don't care." Commented Merem nonchalantly before the vampire picked up a cookie "Inwardly? No idea, though I do know how much that Altrouge bitch still wants to strangle you for taking away 'her pet'."

Another sigh of dismay escaped his lips. Of course, he should have known.

"You're welcome. About Alcatraz, I will keep an eye out." He said somberly "Is there anything else?"

"A gift of gratitude from Van for giving him your autograph of Robbie Fowler." Merem slipped an envelop to him "He also said something about you should find some beautiful girls and get LAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIDDD! *CRAAAASH!*"

One reinforced uppercut and the annoying wanker of Apostle flew through a window out of his home while on the side, Primy and the white rat stopped their 'play' to raise a white board having a '100' number written on it with their front paws. Thank you for stroking his glorious ego, you two.

"Why did you hit me?!" came the outrageous cry as Merem had managed to hold onto the window wiith his right hand "It was Van said that! I'm only a messenger!"

"Van-Fem is in Monaco and you happen to be the nearest vampire so I hit you." He grunted in annoyance. Now he was 100% sure that he couldn't get back to his beautiful sleep.

* * *

Sitting up from his bed, it took Tatsuya all of his will not to scream as one again, the frightening memories of the 'clash' three years ago in the Okinawa Defense Navel Battle between him and that... 'monster', the one that called herself a 'Dead Apostle Ancestor', resurfaced.

' _ **Weakling...'**_

Three years had past yet he still couldn't forget that day. A young looking woman stood in his way back to his sister. No matter what he had thrown at her, that 'Dead Apostle Ancestor' would have just dodged of effortlessly swatted them away as if his attempts had been just smalll annoying bug. And the moment that girl put her fingers on his abdomen... It took every single fiber of his body to not let out an agonizing scream as he felt something pierced through his chest multiple times...

' _ **Hmm... You survived that... Interesting... I will let you live a little bit more... '**_

Even now, Tatsuya wasn't certain if that 'monster' had let him live so that she could kill him later or not. However, he knew he would never let this second chance go to waste. That was why we would become stronger and stronger...

' _ **I hope you can entertain me better than the last one... Or else... the little girl that you hold dear will take your place...''**_

... so that 'monster' would never have a chance to lay even a single finger on his sister. Especially when his opponent was a mystery that even the intelligence of the 101 Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion couldn't find out anything.

* * *

A long yawn escaped his lips despite his best attempt to surpress it. Even with a big serving of cognac Cafe Royale this morning and the sound of rock music constantly playing while he was working, the sleeppiness still managed to catch up with him. Now he just wanted to finish his work as soon as possible and return to the gardening shed for a shuteye. While Merem was a good friend, dealing with that whimsical vampire's antics was truly exhausting.

"There you are, you lowly commoner!"

Oh for the love of Root, WHAT THE HELL WAS WRONG WITH TODAY?! Was today the international day of 'Let's piss off Watarimono Yuuto by whatever means you have'?!

"Yes?" I turned back with a smile, which probably was very daunting if the wanker named Mori-blahblahblah and his lackeys involuntarily took a step back like that, as I tried to hold my annoyance back. "How can I help you?"

"Fou!" Oh it really was? Thank you Primy. I would give you a dumpling later.

"I challange you to a duel! How dare you stop me yesterday?" the demand from Mori-blahblahblah made him raise his eyebrows a little bit. Oh my, an ungrateful meat punching bag just came out of nowhere. How could he refuse such a generous gift falling from the sky like that?

"Sure. Time and place?"

"As a person coming from the Hundred Families, my pride demands me..." continued the wanker with his (likely) steaming pile of bullshit before he came to a sudden halt "Wait! You accept?!"

Normally, he would say no since the one this Mori-blahblahblah should challange was that Tatsuya lad. Unfortunately, it appeared that this wanker thought this good old 'lowly commoner' Watarimono Yuuto should receive 'punishment' for saving said wanker from unnecessary trouble.

Damn, he truly pitied the body that had to hold the soul of this wanker.

"Are you deaf?" he could feel the previous daunting smile came back to his face in full force "So please, time and place?"

Aaaahhh, today was turning to the better. Therefore, he withdrew all the complaints he has made about today.

* * *

Huh, he didn't expect there would be quite a bunch of spectators. The Student Council's and Public Morals Commitee's lads, the Shiba siblings and even Sakurai-san. Should he continue with his original plan to use only fists or put on a show and end the duel with style?

... Bah, using fists was always better in releasing some steam and giving a satisfying sensation. After all, dismissing his annoyance was his original intention to accept this challange anyway.

"What took you so long, you jerk?!" shouted Mori-blahblahblah angrily

"Sorry sorry, just overslept a little bit.." a dry laugh escaped his throat as Primy jumped down and ran to the spectators. After taking a minute to sniff every single one, the beast hopped onto Miyuki's laps, earning a cute 'eep!' from the girl, and made himself comfortable there. Seeing how the girls, minus Sakurai-san, immediately surrounded Primy made him chuckle quietly as he could easily tell the cheeky furball enjoyed being pampered like that.

"Anyway, should we start?" he turned toward his punching bag. "Do we have a referee here? Any rules should I need to know?"

"I will act as referee" said Sakurai-san as she stepped forward and explaining the rules and punishment for the violation, which was not much anyway.

Ah, he was going to enjoy this _veeeerrrryyyy_ much.

"Wait!" The voice of Miyuki stopped his gleeful thought inits track "Where's your CAD?"

"Not necessary in this fight. My fists are enough." he waved his hand dismissively as he could the Mori-blahblahblah wanker became red, probably due to anger "Anyway, shall we begin?"

"All right. Are you two ready?" asked Sakurai-san looking at the wanker and him in turn. After receiving nods of affirmation, she raised her right hand up as he reinforced his legs with prana.

"Begin!"

With a long jump forward, he easily reduced the distance between him and his punching bag, who just managed to draw his pistol-liked CAD, to zero. And aside a small amount of od, he poured all of his annoyance he had received today into his fist.

*CRASH!*

The moment his fist met the wanker's abdomen, said wanker flew backward before coming to a stop thanked to a wall behind as his spectators' eyes bugged out comically. Probably shouldn't hape used od but HOT DAMN! Sending the wanker flew away like that with just one single punch like that really help blowing steam.

"Wha... What was that?!" the short black hair girl was the first one recovered as Sakurai-san checked the unmoving body. "What kind of magic was that?"

"Ma, ma, ma. If a secret makes a woman, woman then a secret makes a man look cool." he chided while ignoring deadpanned looks or in the case of the Student Council President, a very hilarious yet lady-like laugh, sent toward his way. "If there's nothing else, I will take my leave. Give whatever result you want, Sakurai-san for I don't really care. Let's go, Primy"

(Chapter end)

 **Author's note: After this chapter, my updates will come slower since my lap broke down after 7 years serving me faithfully and I'm not sure when I can get a new one.** **Anyway, you will be forever missed, my Dell Vostro 1400. Anyway, please read and review!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Journal Entry October 15th, 2092**

 _Finally back to Japan. Quite an eventful trip with Clock Tower no longer exist and Burial Agency became a phantom of its former self, slinking around out of the 'new' Church's sight after a mass 'excommunication' and 'eradication' in 1999. At least the Agency is still alive thanked to brother's two best friends,_ _ **Merem Solomon**_ _who's now the Agency new vice leader after Narbareck's mysterious disappearance in mid 1998 and_ _ **Van-Fem**_ _with his V &V Industries . Even though Merem's whimsical nature and Van-Fem's ridiculous ways to deal with boredom can be quite annoying, seeing those two familiar faces around is still much better than having none. _

_Not to mention they share a same goal with me._

 _Anyway, given my fascination with Kawabata Yasunari's novel, Izu no Odoriko, I decided to crash in Izu Peninsula for a vacation. But more importantly, it is the perfect place for brother's tombstone. Thank Root that wars never reach this peninsula._

 _The autumn scenery at this time is truly marvelous and I am having a very good time relaxing and researching about this modern time's magecraft. Hell, I was truly tempted to settle down in Izu if it wasn't for this_ _ **Saegasu Kouichi**_ _along with his arrogant sons and vulgar underlings, who came in the restaurant after me and Primy yet were served first. While the man was polite alright, it was clear that his two arrogant sons have never heard the phrase 'The mouth is the source of all trouble.'._

 _Heh, seeing the two wankers and their useless underlings squirmed and tried to fight for their lives was quite entertaining._

 _Unnecessary perhaps, but still entertaining nonetheless._

* * *

 **Chapter 4:**

" _How's the young Yuuto doing, my friend?"_

" _Physically, still good as new. And fuck you Van. You knew he would punch me because of that message, didn't you?"_

" _Oh he punched you? I'm truly sorry to hear that, Merem. I expected he would give you a kick between your legs before shoving garlics down your throat, not just a simple punch."_

" _That's even worse, you jerk!"_

" _*chuckles* Forgive me for my tasteless joke, my friend. I just can't resist pulling your legs like that. Anyway, you said 'physically'. Care to elaborate, Merem?"_

" _*sigh*... It just… I'm not entirely certain about what I saw. Perhap I will tell you later if my suspicion is proven correct,"_

" _... Very well, I trust your judgement in this, Merem. For now, we will continue with our roles. For the young Yuuto… and for Keto as well as the World itself."_

" _... Van, what would Keto think if he saw his younger brother became like him before he adopted the kid?"_

" _So that's your suspicion, huh. Personally, I believe you don't have to worry about that, my dear friend."_

" _Confident, aren't you?"_

" _I have faith in both Yuuto as well as Keto's teaching. Beside… "_

" _Beside?"_

" _... Let's just say… Fate works in a mysterious that no one can understand… Not even a person who stayed that long in the Record..."_

* * *

What was the definition of 'gift'? Even though there were various definitions depending on each person, he was sure as hell a request to help was not a gift. While it was true that he basically had no problem with helping other people regardless of said people were strangers or someone he knew as long as he wanted to help, using 'gift' as an excuse to ask for help annoyed him. While Merem was whimsical, at least the childish Dead Apostle Ancestor was straight when it came to request, unlike the Dark Lord of Business World.

Letting out a sigh, he took a sip of merlot from his flask as the fruit-driven plum and cherry flavors danced on the tip of his tongue. Perhaps this was one of Van-Fem's ridiculous ways to deal with boredom and he must admitted, he should have expected this from said vampire. On a brighter point of view, at least Van-Fem was still much preferable than Zelrect. That damned motherfucking…

Wait, which one should he use? 'Troll vampire' or 'Vampire troll'?

Bah, he would think about that later. Glancing at his pocket watch, he stood up from his seat and turned to the 4th arrival gate. The one he needed to pick up should be here now…

Ah, there she was. Her strange hair color was hard to miss after all.

" **Mash Kyrielight**?" he approached the glasses wearing light pink hair girl who was clad in a short black dress, black stockings and a pair of brown high neck shoes. And...

… For the love of Root, please don't tell him that she brought her whole closet of clothes in those two big luggages. Luckily he brought his car instead of his Triumph Speed Triple 1050 baby...

"I am. And good evening, Watarimono-sama." his eyebrows twitched a little bit as he could feel strange looks were being sent to him by people around while the violet eyes girl gave him a ninety degree bow. "I will be in your care from now on."

Ah, those violet eyes were truly beautiful.

"Yeah yeah, nice to meet you too." he said nonchalantly "Now let's go. The sooner we are done with fixing you up, the sooner you can return to Van-Fem."

For some unknown reasons, he had a feeling that tonight would be a very long and exhausting night.

Damn.

* * *

So close, yet so far.

Everytime. Everytime Miyuki thought she finally caught up with her Savior-sama in her dream, time felt like it sped up 100 times and the distance between him and her just returned back to before.

Miyuki couldn't help but tighten her embrace around the blazer. Were her desires too much to ask? All she desired were to say a proper thank for giving her and her family members a second chance to live...

... Well, and try to get to know him and show him that she was doing her best in life. And maybe, just maybe...

"... Maybe Savior-sama might pat my head and call me a good girl..." mumbled Miyuki in embarassment as she tried to hide her flushed face in his blazer.

* * *

"... You look... not good, Watari-san..." the moments those words came out of her lips, Honami herself could even tell how lame they sounded. It was strange to be honest since she had no problem in making conversation with other male yet when it came to the young man next to her...

"Thanks for stating the obvious, Sakurai-san." grumbled the young gardener as he and his pet named Primy let out a long yawn at a same time. The young woman couldn't deny that the moment was oddly adorable. "At least you didn't call me 'panda' like that jackass custodian... Slippery bastard..."

Oh believe her, she had been really tempted to call him that after seeing those heavy bags under his eyes. But since it would be very impolite and improper to joke like that, she easily swatted said desire away.

"You have troubles with getting sleep?" asked Honami in concern. Perhaps she could help him...

"Lack of sleep due to various annoying reasons that I couldn't control or predict, to be more precise." Honami winced inwardly. That was anything but pleasant. "Two bloody days straight without any proper shuteye. One more day and I'm sure as hell the world really want to mess with me for it sicked amusement."

"Fou..." said Primy tiredly as it curled on the top of the gardener's head. Honami couldn't help but wonder just what had happened that could make both the owner and the pet to stay up like this.

"That aside," Yuuto's voice snapped Honami out of her thought "How's that Mori-blahblahblah wanker?"

It took her two seconds to understand who Yuuto was referring to as she shook her head in disapproval

"Two cracked ribs but he can still stand and go to school. You should have gone easy on him and if it wasn't a duel, the Morisaki Family might try to do something to make the school kick you out."

A dismissive wave of his hand and a strange chuckle made Honami raised her eyebrows a little bit.

"Only two? Bugger, I expected three. Guess relying a little too much on magic has really made my skills become rusty." Yuuto's carefree reply made her frown as he took a sip from his flask "Also, let it serve as a wake up call as well as a lesson not to underestimate other, even if the opponent is just a 'lowly commoner'. Fighting with fists may be old as dirt but it doesn't mean it's not effective."

With another long yawn, the black hair young man stretched a bit without dropping the small white pet on the top of his head before he rummaged through his pocket and took out his strange looking music player.

"After all..." For a very brief second, Honami could swear she just saw a dark look flashed in Yuuto's eyes before it disappeared as if it had never existed in the first place. "... a bruised ego is still way better than a permanant death in actual combat. Don't you think so, Sakurai- _sensei_?"

"... Yes, you're right Watari-san." Honami couldn't deny that as she turned toward the school building. Being a teacher, she could see that many first year 'Course 1' students had a false sense of superiority, which could easily change into one of the greatest enemies in combat: Arrogance.

"... Oh right, Watari-san. If you don't mind, can I ask you how did you cross the distance so ea..."

The moment Honami turned to her friend, her question died in her throat before it could be finished as Watarimono Yuuto had already fallen asleep, his head tilted to the side a bit which probably was the reason why Primy now was on his laps. Unlike when he was awake, a sleeping Yuuto had a strange aura of serenity that really reminded her about her Hero-sama.

Shaking her head slightly, Honami closed her eyes and let her thought flow along the slow melody of piano as the Guardian enjoyed the peaceful sensation of spring breezes coming from the sky.

 _ **Wasure rare nai hito no omokage/ The memory of a person that I can't forget**_

 _ **Tooi sora ni kaeshitara sakura mai chiru/ When I look back to the sky far away, the cherry blossoms flutter down**_

* * *

 _ **Hardly anything left for you to see**_

A little bit here... And a little here... Whala! It looked perfect. Now his job for today could be considered done. Bloody hell, why was the gym placed where had the most sunlight in the afternoon? And thank you for helping him *yawn* staying on his toe with your music, Bennie.

 _ **For you to see...**_

Ah, what did it take for a guy who knew how to make good music like this Chester Bennington mate to be born into the world, he wondered. Would a big sacrifice consisted of those useless wankers in the current music industry be sufficient? Especially this Jusber Biertin limpdick whose music was being played by a music club on the school's sound system. What kind of atrocity was that bastard singing anyway?

Damn *yawn* he started disliking this club recruitment day already. All thanked to that Biertin wanker.

And speaking about the club recruitment, it was clear as a cloudless day with temperature about 27 Celcius degree, 1015 hPa of pressure and 37℅ of humidity that the Public Moral Committee lads were having one hell of a field day. It seemed the 'Course 2' students had finally reached their limit with being looked down and started retaliating. Couldn't blame them though. *yawn*

"Fou!" said Primy in concern as the white beast patted his cheek with one of his front paws. Yeah, he should return to the gardener shed and take a short shuteye. At least the shed was soundproof and no big fight had happened so far with any lethal or fatal magecraft being thrown into the fray...

"Mibu-san, how would you like to fight with real swords?"

Wait, was that a... What was it again? Oh right, a Sonic Blade. Yes, he remembered it now. Could be quite a nice tool to bisect if used properly...

Ah, fuck his luck.

* * *

"Mibu-san, how would you like to fight with real swords?"

With a few typing on Kirihara's CAD, sequence burst to life before her opponent rushed to her, his high-frequency Sonic Blade was ready to strike as Mibu only had enough time to turn around to face her opponent. Without any other choice, Mibu forced her body back as much as possible to avoid being inj...

*CRACK!*

The sound of breaking glass echoed in the gym before a big gardening scissors flew in and impaled deep into the wooden floor right between her and Kirihara, forcing her assaulter to stop dead in his track as Mibu fell backward onto the floor due to the sudden interference.

"Ma, ma, ma." a tired looking young man in gardening clothes made his appearance by jumping through a broken window while on his left shoulder was a strange yet cute looking animal. "While I don't know the whole story, using that spell is a little bit too much, isn't it? And not a

"Who the hell are you?!" growled Kirihara as the newcomer covered his mouth due to a long yawn escaped his lips. On the side, Mibu was eyeing the newcomer cautiously. A normal person couldn't throw a garden scissors like that.

"Watarimono Yuuto, just a lowly common gardener" the gardener raised his cap slightly before he took out a rien pipe and put it between his lips "Anyway, you still haven't answer my question, lad."

"It's not your business! Fuck off!"

"Indeed." Even though baleful glares were continuously being thrown at him from 'Bloom' students in the gym, the gardener just chuckled lightly in a rather strange yet... enchanting way in Mibu's opinion "But since I'm a part of school staffs, albeit only a gardener, stopping these kind of things is also... Whoa."

Before Yuuto could finish, Kirihara rushed to the gardener and slashed his Sonic Blade downward, forcing Yuuto to step back to evade the hit

"Heh, so you want to play with sword instead of talking?" for a moment, Mibu could saw a very small hint of amusement in his tired eyes "Unfortunately, I'm still sleepy and I'm not exactly good with sword but no worry! I can arrange a _super_ substitution right now..."

With a snap of his fingers, a blue magic circle appeared on the wooden floor before a beautiful girl appeared from the circle, much to the shock of everyone in the gym. Her light pinkish hair along with grey eyes and her great figure gave her a very unique beauty that could make any girls die in envy. Her magnificent short blue kimono with red garments and three katana hanging on her waist granted her a dignified aura of a master swordwoman yet still felt relaxed and lively at the same time.

"I am sorry but may I ask what your name is, lady?" Yuuto gave the girl a polite bow "I was still sleepy back then so my summon was pretty much random."

"A polite summoner, aren't you? And quite good looking too." the young swordwoman let out a cheerful yet elegant giggle "My formal name is **Shinmen Musashi-no-Kami Fujiwara no Harunobu**. Still, it's easier if you just call me **Musashi**. So... What do you need?"

The menacing gaze in Yuuto's eyes sent a shudder down the spine of every student in the gym

"This wanker wants a fight with real sword." the gardener nodded his head toward Kirihara, who finally snapped out of his shock "Therefore, please give him a fight of a lifetime without killing him, okay?"

"Challange accepted!" the carefree laugh of Musashi girl sounded like music yet a phantom feeling of doom was gradually making its way to the gym as a pair of bokken appeared in her hands

"Now... Shall we _dance_?"

(Chapter end)

* * *

 **Author's note: WRITING ON PHONE IS SO GODDAMN FRUSTRATING! Anyway, the first one can guess the names of all the songs I have used so far can choose a girl for the harem since the list will be finalized soon. Finally, please read and review!**


	5. Chapter 5

_"... Yuuto-kun, if you're listening to this cassette tape, then it means my vision has become reality with the Clock Tower has fallen and you wish to seek the answer. While I do not know how the World will change with this event, I do know one thing for sure that it won't be pleasant. There are reasons why great powers need to be restraint, after all._

 _Heh, if only I was a better role model, perhaps I would be confident enough to say I trust you would use whatever you gain from Akashic Record and the little information in this package wisely. Well, at least I know you won't do anything rash so… I guess that counts, right? And with Merem and Van-Fem, I know you won't be alone and they will help you with your path…_

 _Do you sill remember that day, Yuuto-kun? The day I saved you back in that town? It has been 10 years yet to me, it always feels like yesterday… Back then, I adopted you just to sooth my guilt of indirectly killing your parents… Yet in the end… you were the one who taught me the feeling of happiness and let me feel the warmth of having a family to care for and protect again… For someone like me, the monster who slaughtered my very own clan out of anger and hatred… you were my salvation._

 _Farewell… And thank you for coming into my life, my dear little brother… I don't care what life you will choose, whether it will be a hero, a villain, a hermit or any other kind of life you want… Just please, live a happy life… for the both of us… And carve your own path with your hands for your own sake…_

 _Too bad I may not be able to watch out for you and see you get a beautiful bride from where I probably will be…_

 _Watarimono Keto… signing out."_

* * *

 **Chapter 4**

 _"_ Oh good. You're awake." Blinking her eyes owlishly, Mash slowly turned to the source of the voice, which was him of course "One more unconscious day and I would be worried that something might gone wrong. Anyway, how do you feel?"

"... Hungry… But I feel… good. Surprisingly good, sempai." said the pink hair girl as Primy jumped onto her shoulder and started nuzzled his nose against her cheeks. While he wasn't sure why his pink hair guest decided to call him 'sempai', it was still better than 'Yuuto-sama' so he didn't complain "So now I am…"

"Yep! Your problem's solved and your lifespan has returned to normal. No negative side-effect, no backlash. Hell, you can even summon Galahad if you need some help, one hundred percent safe. We will deal with your hunger later. And finally, you're welcome."

Ah, he couldn't help but say in a bombastic manner. Hey, who could deny his right to brag after solving such a unique case like this without using his Magic or causing mistakes? His skill in combat might get rusty a little bit didn't mean his magecraft skill would fall into the bottom of Mariana Trench. Except for that Zelrect troll as well as his brother and the Aozaki siblings, he was confident that his skill in magecraft wouldn't lose to anyone…

"Galahad?" the surprise was evident in her voice as Mash stopped playing with Primy "Do you mean…"

"Galahad, one of The Knights of the Round Table and the very same Heroic Spirit fused with you and turned you into a Demi-Servant, _Mashu-chan_. He insisted staying with you since after all that time, you're now like a little sister to him. " He shrugged nonchalantly as he sat down into the chair next to her bed "Don't tell me you have no idea about his identity?"

The bright shade of red on her face was more than enough to answer his question as he let out a sigh before taking a sip from his flask. And speaking about that Galahad, the soul was really protective when it came to Mash. He guessed it was the trait of most older brothers…

… Just like his brother.

"*sigh* Anyway, now onto another matter." Shaking his head slightly, he brought out his rien pipe and put it between his lips. Enough goofing around, time for serious business again "Before you go back to Van-Fem…"

"No, I won't return to Van-Fem-sama since he is no longer my Master, sempai." Her sudden reply stopped him in his track as he rose his eyebrows questionably "His final order was to ask me to come here to be healed and give you information about **Chaldea** after doing a favor he had asked me to do."

Ho, so basically she was free. Good for her then. To be able to live free like a cloud in the sky and make her own choice was a gift that not many people could understand.

"Can't you just give me the info before that?" came his comment in annoyance before he took another sip. Perhaps he would have some Château Talbot tomorrow "And if you don't mind me asking, what kind of favor that vampire asked you to do? "

While he admitted he was a bit curious, his main reason to ask mostly because he needed to prepare safety measures and if necessary, stop any possible madness before it could happened and give him unwanted headaches. There had been a time Van-Fem had suggested a manager of this ramen chain to put curry in the menu and boom! The chain had gone bankrupted. Needless to say, it was one hell of a mess but that was the story for another day.

Wait, since when did she hold his hand…

 **"I am Mash Kyrielight, the Servant of Shield. The path you choose shall be the path I choose."** Magnificent blue light emitted from the magic circle below him and her as her voice echoed in the room **"My shield shall henceforth be by your side and protect you."**

After a whole year, he found himself become speechless again as an impish smile made its way to her face

"This is the favor Van-Fem-sama asked me to do. And please take care of me from now on, Master".

When his brain finally rebooted, a drunken shout came to his ears before he could come up with anything

"Hey, Yuuto-sama! *hiccup* Do you have more of this sake? *hiccup* It's really delicious!"

He could only sigh as Mash looked at him questionably. One of many headaches had just arrived, right on time. Let's just hope the samurai Heroic Spirit didn't finish his stash of sake before he could do it. Such the price of having Musashi stayed here so that he could have a sparring partner as well as a drinking buddy instead of sending her back to the Throne of Heroes.

Oh well, living through adversity and misfortune was what made us human, he guessed.

* * *

"Tatsuya-kun, you are day-dreaming again." Yakumo's voice did a wonderful job in kicking Tatsuya back to reality as the childish smile of the 'monk wannabe' didn't faze in the slightest "If I recall correctly, I didn't hit your head that hard, did I?"

"Ah, sorry sensei. I was just busy thinking." Tatsuya shook his head apologetically "Could you please repeat what you said?"

"You were thinking about the incident 2 days ago, weren't you Onii-san?" came Miyuki's statement as Tatsuya nodded his head. One 'Bloom' student named Kirihara Takeaki had been thoroughly beaten to a bloody pulp while the other students from both the Kendo Club and Kenjutsu club, who had also been unconscious at the time they had been found, couldn't recall what had happened after they heard the sound of glass breaking. This kind of incident was on a whole new level comparing to the daily minor conflicts between the 'Course 1' and 'Course 2' students that could be easily ignored.

"It's just… everything about that incident is so confusing." Tatsuya let out a long sigh as he resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose "Too many questions yet no answer. And with Mayumi-san around at that time I couldn't just openly use Elemental Sight in order to thoroughly analyze their Eidos for some clues."

And not to mention those members of the Newspaper Club kept roaming around the school to 'investigate' this particular 'scoop' so that they could 'bring the truth of the incident to light'. While Tatsuya was confident that they wouldn't understand his power even if they saw it, that didn't mean the Newspaper club wouldn't put his power on the front page.

Zealots could be… No, scratch that, they _were_ very dangerous.

"If that is the case then there is nothing you can do about it now, at least until your schoolmate wake up." Yakumo just shrugged as Miyuki sent Tatsuya an unreadable glance "Back to the topic, You said you wanted to investigate your school gardener whose name was Watarimono Yuuto. May I ask why?"

"I suspect the gardener has something to do with the incident." said Tatsuya as his eyes held a thoughtful gaze "The first time we met I could feel something was… off about him and with his role as a gardener, he can be at any parts of the school, minus the area held the research area, without raising any question."

"Those can also be applied to your school's instructors as well as the janitors and custodians. And they're even more suspicious than a gardener." said Yakumo calmly "Why do you suspect the gardener in particular, not those I just listed?"

With a sigh, Tatsuya's eyes adopted a thoughtful look

"First of all, there is the way he moved and carried himself. At the first glance it seemed carefree and slouched yet after a closer look, it was really refined and didn't have any useless move. And there was his duel with Morisaki-san." grunted Tatsuya as his mind started recalling the memory of the duel "The moment right before he made that long jump as well as right before he punched Morisaki-san, I could feel there was 'something' happened yet I couldn't identify it. And I am 100% sure that it is not an Acceleration."

"Hmm, yes… If those were what your intuition had told you, I see no reason to doubt…" nodded Yakumo slightly as he hummed in thought "Okay then. My information network will handle this. Is there anything else?"

* * *

"You seem rather troubled, Sakurai-san." commented the gardener as he sent her an odd look "Did those wankers in classes give you a hard time?"

Honami, for the lack of better words, wasn't sure how she should feel now. Everything Tatsuya had said to her was very logical and no matter how much she wanted to deny it, she just couldn't disagree with his suspicion. After all, the gardener had managed to come close to her without being noticed in the first place and she was a Guardian no less. It would be natural if she became wary about him instead of believing that he wasn't like that?

But why? Why was she so defensive when it came to the young gardener? Was it because she had considered him as a friend? Or was it because the young gardener really reminded her about her unknown Hero-sama?

"Oi oi!" Honami was kicked out of her thought by the sound of finger snapping in front of her face "Do you even listen to me, Sakurai-san?"

"Ah, I'm sorry Yuuto-san. It's just… There're a lot in my mind lately." said Honami apologetically before changing the subject "Oh, and if you don't mind me asking, what who was the student you had a conversation earlier?"

"Ah, that's Mibu Sayaka for ya. Happened to crash in her by accident and she seemed like a good girl to me, both inside and outside. Heh, if I had a chance I would have no problem with dating her." the young gardener commented nonchalantly as Honami gave him a deadpanned look " However, I think she might find herself in trouble soon."

"What do you mean by that, Yuuto-san?" asked Honami as her eyes focused on the young gardener.

"She said about creating an alliance between non-magic clubs to change the discrimination between 'Course 1' and 'Course 2' or something like that." shrugged Yuuto as he took out his music player, his fingers pressed on the screen until the the sound of acoustic guitars started playing. "Good intention, indeed. But when I asked about more specific matters, her answers didn't satisfy me. But more importantly…"

Standing up from the bench he shared with her, he moved his shoulders a bit to release the tension before picking up Primy who was sleeping on her laps before he continued.

"... My older brother once told me this: ' _Human is a very stubborn and full of flaws species, with each individual is the only one of in the whole world. You can't change people or force people to change for it will only bring unnecessary chaos. The only thing you can do is to inspire people to change. Whether people will change or not… it's not our place to decide or judge.'_."

"... Your brother is truly wise, Yuuto-san." it took her some time to finally find her voice again. The way Yuuto spoke really assembled the way her Hero-sama had spoken to her back then.

"Yeah he was." her friend just chuckled mirthfully as she frowned. What did he mean by 'Was'? "Anyway, it's time for me to back to work. See you later, all right?"

With a wave of his hand, Watarimono Yuuto left as his feet felt like they were moving along with the melody

 _ **Aishiteru no hibiki dake de/ With only the sound of "I love you",**_

 _ **Tsuyoku nareru ki ga shita yo/ I felt I could become strong...**_

 _ **Sasayakana yorokobi o/ Hold me tight enough**_

 _ **Tsubureru hodo dakishimete/ To crush this meager happiness.**_

* * *

 _Blinking her eyes owlishly, it took Miyuki a few moments to take in her surroundings. The air was thick with toxic smoke along with the fresh smell of burning wood and burnt corpses. Blackened house skeletons twisted into horrific shapes toward the sky. Heat was radiating from both collapsed house as well as luckier houses that still stood. All the color and vibrancy of life of the place she was standing had been stripped away, leaving a charred shell of its former glory. And not to far in front of her, a man in brown suit with a fedora hat and a cane in his left hand was approaching a black hair child._

 _Was he her Savior-sama? What's with the cane? Was he injured? As questions swarmed in Miyuki's mind, she tried to take a step forward but much to her frustration, she couldn't from where she stood._

 _"Oi, kid…" said the person in suit, his tone was filled with regret. For some reasons, this man felt really strange to her. If she had to compare, Watari-san felt much more similar to Hero-sama than the person in front of her "… I'm… sorry… for I am the cause of this… Look, if you want revenge…"_

 _"Why did you save me?" said the child quietly, his voice bore no emotion as his gaze never left the remnant of his town while the man in suit seemed taken back "It would have been better to just have let me die with my mom and dad…"_

 _"... Stupid kid." said the man after what felt like eternity as his hand gently patted on the child's head "Never say stupid shit like that again… "_

 _(End chapter)_

* * *

 **Author's note: This chapter had to be rewritten two times with so many different ideas about how I should reveal Yuuto's past scrapped away or thrown into garbage and writing on phone only made it more painful. Anyway, from the next chapter, the climax of this arc will start and be prepare for the realization! Bawahahahahahahaha! Anyway, please read and review!**


	6. Chapter 6

_**Journal Entry December 2nd, 2092**_

 _Done with buying a house and and many trivial things concerning settle down. Another journey is going to start tomorrow, but this time it's not just to find how many magus are still out there. This time, it's also to find more clues about this 'Chaldea', which was mentioned in the package. Brother believed this Chaldea had a connection to the fall of the old Mage's Association. And speaking of Mage's Organization, maybe I should infiltrate the Magic Association, which can be considered as the inferior version of the Clock Tower back then if what I have dug up so far is true, some time in the future. Quite a high chance that I may dig up something juicy or even some skeletons in the cupboard from there._

 _And also, why the hell did brother use such a large package to contain such small piece of information? Please don't tell me he did that just to make it look more impressive than it actually was?_

 _On a side note, while I am not interested in the magecraft of this time based on what I have researched so far as well as I prefer to use Od and Mana since they are much more potent comparing to Psion and Pushion, the Eidos still managed to captive my interest. Perhaps it can provide me a clue for the question on how Aozaki Touko can make such perfect 'human' puppets that even Van-Fem can not do._

 _And also, I wonder who is this 'friend' that Merem asked me to take along? Whoever that person is, I hope it will be someone normal._

* * *

 **Chapter 6**

Left. Right. Block! Strike upward!

"Oh, for someone whose swordplay is not your forte, you do have talent, holding three swords in each of your hand like that and your fighting style based on improvisation is very interesting. I'm impressed, Master."

Stab forward! Throw! Keep distance! Create more! Dodge! That was close!

"Both your reaction time and instinct are very exceptional and those two are not something you can learn anywhere. Had you met me back then in Edo, I would have not hesitated to have you as my discipline. However..."

Downward! Behind! Wait?! That was not…

"... that's also your weakness."

Twisting his left arm as much as he could, he blocked the incoming strike with the Black Keys in his hand before thrusting the Black Keys in his other hand, forcing the pinkish hair Servant to lean back. Ugh, even with Reinforcement his arms were numb while his body was ached due to the 'minor' strikes he had received before. Must focus!

"Unlike your skill with Magic and magecraft, your combat skill relies too much on your instinct and you react to every movement, including fake and bait moves."

Jump back! Lean left! Block! Right! Dash forward! Behind! Up! Wait!

"Guh!" he grunted painfully the moment Musashi's bokken strike him hard in the torso. Letting all the Black Keys in his hands disappear, he dropped onto the ground while trying to catch his breath. If Musashi hadn't held back, he would have had quite some severe injuries, both internal and external. For a very brief moment, he almost pitied the bastard who had used Sonic Blade back in the gym some days before.

Almost. Comparing to what he had received in the past, that beating was just warm up.

"It is unfortunate that I can't teach my style to you." said Musashi somberly as the Servant of Sword helped him back onto his feet. Her hands were surprisingly soft, he might add. "Therefore, I can only advise you to continue to train humbly and respectfully, Master. For one reaches infinity at the end of their training."

"You know… The way you said it really reminds me about a friend of mine, albeit sounding more positive rather than distant." came his small chuckle as he took out a pentagram sapphire and started healing his bruised body. He still had some time until he had to go to work. "Perhaps you may get along well with her, Musashi-san."

"Is that so?" Musashi was clearly intrigued by his revelation "How is your friend like, Master?"

"Hmm… She's a proud person and has a good eye when it comes to judging people, though she can be bloody haughty. You may find her cold and distant yet the truth is she possesses a gentle side she rarely shows. She's literally overflowing with talents and can give you one hell of a challenge." Musashi's eyebrows raised up a little bit but he continued "Everything I know about Runic magecraft was taught by her despite her streak of 'I'm not your teacher. Forget it.'."

"Pfft!" a weird sound escaped Musashi's throat due to her fail attempt of holding back a laugh "Sound like a kuudere to me."

Wait, kuudere? Since when has she known that 'kuudere' word? Please don't tell him 'kuudere' had been created long before back in the Edo Period.

"Perhaps." he couldn't help but smile a little bit at Musashi's comment before a wistful sigh escaped his lips.

Where was she now, he wonder? It has been a year and he must admitted, he did really miss her…

"Sempai, Musashi-san, breakfast is ready." the voice of the Servant of Shield, who still confused him for _willingly_ throwing away her freedom and become his Servant just because of a favor from Van-Fem, snapped him out of his thought. Her information while still just as vague as his brother's, it still provided some insight of this Chaldea. Of course, it was still far from enough.

Ah, perhaps he would have Poitín for today. The Irish wine has always been his friend's favorite.

* * *

Trying to holding back a yawn, Mayumi shook her head slightly to get rid of the remain of her sleepiness. With her role as the President of the Student Council, she always had to go to school early to take care of her duties. While she has gotten used of it, sometimes she still found it rather… boring, given that she would only have Mari as company in the early morning.

However, her boredom was immediately replaced by curiosity the moment she stepped in the school ground as voices of some male students near the gate reached her ears.

"Did you see her? She is really beautiful, right?"

"Yeah! She looks really mature. And don't forget her assets, too! I wonder if she is single or not."

It seemed that there was a new student that she wasn't aware of, and a beautiful one according to those students. It wasn't uncommon for some students to join the school a few days or a week late, as long as they had reported to the school beforehand. Perhaps she would meet this new student soon.

"I have no idea, man. But it seems she knows the gardener."

"You mean the guy with the strange white pet that girls usually talk about?"

"Who else? And it's not like our school has any other gardener."

"Man, lucky him! But I will not back down so easily!"

"Ha! Never thought you like older woman."

"Oh come on! She looks what, maybe only two or three years older than us! There is no problem with that! And you're just as smitten as me so you have no right to judge!"

Frowning slightly, Mayumi took a look at the students to see that they were the second year students. If the 'two or three years older' part was true then wasn't the new student a little too old to study high school, even if she would most likely join the third year? And that student knew the gardener? Mayumi couldn't help but feel something was odd.

Too deep in her thought, Mayumi didn't realize someone was coming close from behind until a female voice kicked her out of her thought

"Oi oi! You're standing in the way." the President of the Student Council nearly jumped on her spot due to the new voice

"A yes. I'm sorry." quickly calming herself down, Mayumi turned to the source of the voice to find a beautiful young woman with pinkish hair tied into a ponytail on the right side as she was clad in a short blue kimono, a gardening scissor was spun in her hand. However, Mayumi didn't expect to see the gardener's 'Primy' was sitting on the young woman's left shoulder with a dumpling in its mouth.

Wait, was this the girl she had heard about, she wondered? She didn't look like a student to her.

"I'm sorry, but I have never seen you around." asked Mayumi with a friendly smile but inwardly, she was on her guard. Despite the young woman's carefree and relaxed aura, there was something about this girl that made her back hair stood up. "I'm Saegusa Mayumi. And you're… "

"Just call me Musashi since my formal name's too long to be remembered." said the young woman with a cheerful and dignified smile before she bent her body slightly to the side in order to have a better look at the lawn "And of course you've never seen me here. This is my first day working here as Yuuto-san's assistant. He said something about tulips were going to bloom soon thus he needs someone, which is me, to give him a hand and let him give those flowers more attention and care."

Ah, now Mayumi understood. The school did have a small place where tulips were planted. It was one of her favorite places in school due to the peaceful sensation those tulips gave. However…

"I see. But Musashi-san, why is 'Primy' with you instead of Watari-san?" it was a very well-known fact that 'Primy' would always stick close to the young gardener… Well, minus the duel back then between him and Morisaki when Primy decided to stick with the younger Shiba.

"Yuuto-san's afraid this furball may cause undesirable havoc to the flowers so I have to keep him for now." replied Musashi nonchalantly as the white animal on her shoulder had a cute insulted look on its face, making Mayumi giggled merrily just by looking at it

"Fou!" yipped the little animal angrily after seeing Mayumi giggled but she just couldn't stop. 'Primy' was just too adorable to be taken seriously. And Mayumi couldn't help but wonder where did the male gardener find this adorable little furball. She really wanted to have one!

* * *

 _ **Aenakutemo kioku wo tadotte onaji shiawase wo misetainda/ Even if we can't meet, I can feel the same happiness when recollect those memories**_

 _ **Ano kaori to tomoni hanabi ga patto hiraku/ With that scent, the fireworks burst open**_

Another uneventful working day. Taking care of those tulips was exhausting but it would be really worth it. It was a little bit sad that red spider lily would only bloom in late August or early September. Which would be a long waiting time since this was only April. Would any miracles happen, he wondered? The crimson flower had always been accurate when it came to 'miracle foreshadowing' stuff.

And speaking about April, perhaps he should go enjoy the sakura scenery with his housemates before it ended. Damn, he almost forgot about that.

"How did you convince the school to let you use the Public Announcement System to play your music, Master?" Musashi's question forced him to stop moving his fingers along the piano melody coming from the system as the swordwoman took a swig of sake. While there was a law prohibiting drinking alcohol in the school, he would just drink to his heart's content as long as nobody knew.

"With the excuse of 'helping the tulips growing better'. And I can be persuasive if I need." he said simply "Also, how do you feel to become the school's top gossip topic along with 'Primy'?"

"Meh, I'm not really care." commented Musashi in her usual carefree manner.

Chuckling at his friend's respond, he took as sip from his flask before returning to his own world. Ah, even though the original female version was super, he still preferred this piano arranged version with male voice. The sad voice along with the sheer emotion in the song were so astounding and extraordinary! And his preferred kind of music was also good for the growth of the tulips as well as other plants in the school. If his estimation was right…

 ** _Ikitaiyo kimino tokoro e chiisana te wo nigiri shimete/ I want to go to where you are and hold your little hand_**

 ** _Nakitaiyo sore wa sore wa kirei na sora datta/ I want to cry because that is, that is that beautiful sky_**

 ** _Negai wo nagare boshi…/ I tried to make a wish…_**

Suddenly, the music was stopped right before it could reach the climax, thus effectively cutting off his thought as well as making his mood fall back to the ground, hard. Who?! Who dared stopped his music?!

Immediately, his angry question was answered by a familiar voice

 _ **"Attention, fellow students of First High! We are the 'Aspirants Alliance'! We seek to erase the discrimination within the school!"**_

Tsk, tsk, tsk. It seemed Mibu-chan didn't take in his advice seriously. And with the stunt her Alliance had just pulled…

"Oi Master. Your face looks scary there."

"Fou!"

Thanking for pointing out the obvious, Musashi and Primy. Now what should he do…

* * *

"What should we do now, Mayumi-san?" asked Miyuki. The Alliance members had barricaded themselves inside the Public Announcement Room and demanded to negotiate with the Club Management Group and the Student Council. Apparently, the opinions and ideas to solve the problem were conflicting with each other as Miyuki's eyes turned to her brother, hoping that he would come up with a brilliant solution.

However, she didn't expect to hear a familiar voice that shouldn't be here.

"All of you useless wankers. Back. Off."

The moment all the students presenting at the 'crime scene' turned to the source of voice and what they saw nearly made them jumped. Watarimono Yuuto, the gardener of First HIgh, was standing behind them with Primy and his assistant Musashi right behind.

And he looked pissed. Royally pissed. His 'evil aura' was so intense that Tatsuya wasn't sure if both Miyuki's and Honami's evil aura combined could compete with what he was experiencing right now or not.

"Mibu Sayaka!" unlike his normal self, the angry gardener's voice was very firm and it held an authority that caught them by surprise and made all of them, minus Tatsuya, felt weak in the knees "I will count to three. If you don't open the door, I will blow this door up!"

"Hey! You can't just…" Suzune was the first one to snap out of her shock and tried to stop the gardener but he just ignored the violet eyes girl.

"One!"

The moment the first number was counted, the gardener took out a tiny red thing out of one of his pockets and throw it at the door...

 ***BOOM!***

The moment it made contact with the door, a deafening explosion completely destroyed the barricaded door of the room and nearly blew the presenting members of the Student Council and Club Management Group off their feet.

"What the hell was that?! And where the hell are your 'two' and 'three'?!" asked both Mari and Suzune outrageously but the gardener just waved his hand dismissively

"Who the fuck care?" commented the gardener offhandedly before he cracked his knuckles and stepped inside the room "A man only needs to remember number 'one' to live."

And before anybody could gave the young man any kind of retort, painful cries coming from the Public Announcement Room made all of them cringe and almost pitied those Alliance members.

Almost.

(End chapter)

* * *

 **Author's note: The end of this arc is coming near and after I finish with this Enrollment Arc, I can return back to 'Lord of Souls'! Hmm, maybe I should let someone die. That's not a bad idea, to be honest. Or maybe a fluff scene, though I'm not sure who will be the first one to have. Damn plot bunnies.**

 **On the side note, the harem's members coming from Nasuverse are finalized so I won't receive requests or recommendation of Nasuverse's characters anymore. However, the last spot on the Mahouka's side is still open so...**

 **Finally, please read and review!**


	7. Chapter 7

_"You pick a strange kind of flower to like, kid."_

 _"I like the crimson color of it. Beside, I feel a connection to it."_

 _"Should I be worried that you feel a connection toward the flower connecting to the death?"_

 _"Are you trying to pick a fight with me?"_

 _"Not interested. But mostly because you won't be able to give me even a small scratch, kid."_

 _"Go to hell."_

 _"Geez, what a nice adopted brother I have. But still, do you know Red Spider Lily is also connected to 'm_ _iracle'?"_

 _"That's the first time I heard it. Did you just make it up?"_

 _"No, it came from one of my most precious people. Red Spider Lily, the flower that will never be a_ _llowed to bloom alongside leaves. But if one day a flower can bloom alongside leaves, that means a m_ _iracle is going to happen."_

 _"And you believe it?"_

 _"I don't believe it. I know it's true and I have experienced it, twice."_

 _"And what 'miracles' did you get?"_

 _"I'll tell you when you're older."_

 _"Pfft! More like you just don't want to, you wanker of a brother."_

* * *

 **Chapter 7:**

"I'm surprised that they let you off the hook so easily like that, Master." commented Musashi as the samurai girl walked beside him. Quite a heretic day, he admitted. At least he and the plants had had a chance to enjoyed another song. "Especially after such a stunt like that."

"I said it before and I'll say it again: I can be persuasive if I need to." he just gave his companion a shrug. It was pretty easy to persuade those lads since he had solved their problem with no 'serious' casualty and his magecraft didn't use a single ounce of Psion or Pushion. Therefore, his 'explosive self- defense tool' excuse had been accepted for now, given that those lads couldn't prove that he had used 'magic'.

Also, Rule of Equivalent Exchange, old as dirt it might be, was always strong no matter what era the world was in. They wanted information? Then they had to give him information with the value at least equal to what they wanted… provided if they could find out who this Ooguro Ryuuya fella was. The 'chat' he intended to have with that fella would be quite 'interesting'…

And finally, anyone who could use magecraft was basically armed so a gardener who possessed an 'explosive self-defense tool' was still acceptable…

… more or less. But hey, still acceptable.

"If you said so." shrugged Musashi as she gulped down the last of her sake. "But it still seemed rather convenient and not to mention you didn't receive any kind of punishment."

Oh, he did get a warning from the school and a fine that worth two months' salary of his to fix what he had blown up, not that he cared anyway. Even if he had been fired, he could always find a new job or just opened some kind of store, preferably flower shop, or cafe. Not to mention with the First, money was never a problem to him. Hell, Van-Fem even transferred some 'allowance' as well as 'research money' to a bank account under his name every month. Not sure how much said account currently had though since he had never touched it. Probably this would be a good chance to check that account.

… Hmm, now that he thought about it. Perhaps he could use those money to prepare a super wedding gift. Those two lovebirds, especially that Matou girl, deserved much more than what they were having now.

Anyway back to topic, called him paranoid but he believed that Saegusa girl had something up in that cute head of hers if the look in her eyes when she had decided to let him off the hook indicated anything. And speaking of the bastard, his two sons were probably stuck in the toilet at this time. His brother's ridiculous Constipation Curse could be very nasty after all.

Also, he wondered if the Student Council's president had any relation with the head of Saegusa clan that ran much deeper than just being clansmen…

"Regardless, how about we celebrate?" Musashi's voice snapped him out of his thought. Celebrate for what reason? "You're off the hook and it's worthy to celebrate. And I'm eager to try something more luxury than Mashu-chan's and your cooking."

Oh, so that was her main reason. He admitted it had been a while since the last time he had eaten out and this could be a nice change of pace. However…

"I won't pay." he said teasingly "You propose, thus you pay."

"Oh, come on Master! At least I deserve something for helping you with the gardening and keeping Primy at bay, right?! Please? Pretty please!"

"Fou!"

"Oh quiet you little adorable fluffy furball!"

… Was that a complaint or a compliment? Shaking his head in amusement, he took out his music player and let his mind flew along the piano melody of the song

 **Daijoubu daijoubu odokete miseru boku wa/ It's okay, its okay. I, playing the fool,**

 **Chiisana saakasu no na mo naki piero/ am merely a nameless clown in this small circus.**

Hmm, maybe he should buy a clown mask and try to act like one in the wedding. It could be… 'awfully interesting' on so many different levels.

* * *

*drip* *drip* *drip* *drip* *drip* *drip* *drip* *drip*

The warm water continued to spurt out from the shower head as it landed on her skin and flowed down the curves of her body. But instead of washing herself, Mibu Sayaka just let the hot water rush down on her as her mind was deep in her own thoughts.

Everything had been set and the plan was already in motion. The day the open forum was held would also be the day Blanche would strike, the confusion and chaos caused by the attack would served as a distraction for her to break in the Special Browsing room and get her hand on the research. The plan was simple but would be very swift and efficient, given the school's attention would be focus on the forum.

However, Sayaka was having a mixed feeling not only about the plan but also everything else for the last three days. Their goal was to abolish the differential treatment brought on by magic, so why did they need the most cutting edge magical research? What good would it be for the people? And even if there had been any magic benefiting people couldn't use magic, how would it work? But more importantly, would people accept it?

And there was the conversation with the school's gardener kept pestering her mind for the last few days, which she believed to be the root of all these question…

* * *

 _"Oh come on, don't be shy. Just enjoy it, my treat." said the male gardener in front of her almost_ _invitingly. Since the school had ended, his usual gardener clothes had been replaced by a simple white_ _T-shirt, black jeans, black shoes and a brown fedora hat on the top of his head "Or do you find it's not_ _appetizing for your taste?"_

 _Oh, it looked delicious all right. But how could she enjoy it when the one sitting opposite her invited_ _with such an intimidating aura like that?! Not to mention the gardener had given her two large lumps_ _on the top of her head two days before and both of them still felt so painful even just by thinking_ _about them._

 _"So you don't want to eat? Suit yourself then. Still a waste though." commented the gardener before_ _he took out a flask and took a sip from it._

 _However, Sayaka didn't expect to hear his voice became firm as his demeanor changed so fast the_ _moment he put his flask down._

 _"Anyway, now onto the business. I guess this incident answered my question on how far you Alliance_ _lot would go with this 'discrimination fighting'. Are you satisfied with the outcome of this stunt?"_

 _It took her a few seconds to get out of her shock and answer the question_

 _"Yes, Watari-san. With the open forum, we will have a solid chance to erase the discrimination now."_

 _"Just that? Is there anything else?"_

 _For a moment, Sayaka felt herself become stiff as her mouth became dry after hearing his question._ _Had he… No, it was impossible. Maybe she was just being paranoid. Yes, He was just a common_ _gardener. There was no way this gardener would know about that plan._

 _"Yes. And I don't understand what do you mean by 'anything else', Watari-san."_

 _The gardener just gave her a long strange look that she couldn't make head or tail out of it before he_ _took out his rien pipe and put it between his lips. She had never seen him smoked before and she_ _didn't smell anything resembled cigarette smell from him. Therefore, she couldn't understand why he_ _would keep rien pipe if he didn't smoke._

 _"Have your Alliance ever brought this matter to the Student Council and request an open forum to_ _solve this instead of pulling a stunt like that?"_

 _"They would just swat it away without bothering to look at." she forced herself not to sound hostile_ _by biting into her lips as a memory resurfaced in her mind._

 _"Is it true? Or is it just your assumption?" I just kept silent as the gardener continued "And also, I_ _notice that you seem rather… 'edgy' and even borderline zealous when it comes to equalizing the_ _standing of 'Course 1' and 'Course 2'. Just what kind of motivation do you have that can drive you like_ _that?"_

 _Normally, she would have shot down those remarks of being 'edgy' and zealous but the gardener's_ _question made her snapped. Without hesitation, she started telling him the first meeting between her_ _and that despicable Watanabe Mari and how much it had hurt her. Sayaka thought the gardener_ _would understand her reasons now..._

 _"... That's your main motivation? Are you for real? Have you ever hit your head somewhere before?_ _Or do you have a gigantic and twisted ego that can be easily bruised? Hell, maybe you're just being_ _unreasonably spiteful or something like that."_

 _… yet what she received was a deadpanned look etched onto his face._

 _"What is that suppose to mean?" Sayaka used every ounce of her self-control not to lash out even_ _though she could feel her anger was slowly rising. Lashing out at this gardener wouldn't do anything_ _good for her. However, she couldn't stop a glare from making its way onto her face._

 _"Was that too hard to understand? Okay, long version then." the mild annoyance was evident in his_ _voice "She turned your request to spar and your challenge down and that event turned you into a_ _person who hates the discrimination coming from 'Course 1' and fights for equality between the two_ _Courses? Now, if I challenged you to have a shogi match with me and you turned me down, should I_ _think all of you wankers studying in this school have no respect to a school staff and go on a_ _rampage?"_

 _"That isn't the same as my situation." She could hear her voice raised up a little bit_

 _"Minus the shogi part, they're basically still the same. Don't tell me you haven't received any refusal_ _to spar since the first day you started practicing sword? Granted, we're all more or less colored by our_ _own perception but what make this time different from the others?" countered the gardener with his_ _deadpanned tone. " And more importantly, did Watanabe-san really mean it or was it just your_ _assumption, Mibu Sayaka?"_

* * *

Back then, she had finally snapped and violently given the gardener a tongue lashing before stomping away. But after that day, the conversation started questioning herself

Was she truly being unreasonably spiteful? No! She had every right to be spiteful! But…

 ** _'Don't tell me you haven't received any refusal to since the first day you started practicing sword? Granted, we're all more or less colored by our own perception but what make this time different from the others?'_**

Because that despicable Watanabe Mari had looked down on her! How dare that arrogant b…

 ** _'I'm sorry but I have to refuse, for my skills can't match yours. You should find an opponent that is_ _worthy of your skills.'_**

Suddenly, an alien yet familiar memory of Mari's refusal hit her. Wait! Where did it come from?! It wasn't like what she remembered! Her memory…

 _' **I'm sorry but I have to refuse, for my skills can't match yours…'**_

No! What was the meaning of this?! Was her mind trying to play tricks on her? Yes! That was it! Yes, it probably was just an imagination! Tomorrow everything would be okay!

 ** _'I'm sorry…'_**

Yes, everything would be okay…

* * *

A little here… Nah, perhaps if she changed the way the od transfer then it could… No, it wouldn't do… Hmm, now what should she do? If only he was here, he might give her some inspiration and even ideas. Such a nice person yet he was the reason for her current trouble

Letting out a sigh, she put down her tool before turning to a window. His birthday was still nearly two months away. Why did she even bother about it from now? She was an unrivaled genius and she had tons of new and much more interesting things to research, experiment and create! Why would she even put this 'birthday present project' as her top priority? What the hell was wrong with her?

Before her thought could go any further, the voice of her mechanical bird snapped her out of her turmoil

"Oh, I have a guest? Thank you Colbert." she affectionately patted the bird before standing up. Who was it, she wondered…

The door of her workshop opened before a beautiful woman stepped inside as she narrowed her eyes slightly at her 'guest'.

"Oh my. What honor do I have to be visited by The Queen of Land of Shadows in my humble workshop?" Despite her pleasant and humble tone, there was an edge hid in her speech. She despised this woman. Why had he turned down her offer to teach him Runic magecraft and chose to learn from this woman? What did this woman's teaching have that her teaching didn't? Her Runic magecraft was far superior than this woman's yet he had chose this woman over her! Just what trickery had this woman pulled?

"I come here for a request, genius." a hint of haughtiness could be heard in the voice of her red eyes 'guest'

"Oh, and what might it be?"

Whatever game this woman wanted to play, she would never back down. And she would prove to him why she was considered as the almighty genius.

* * *

Despite the smile on his face, Yakumo was letting out a sigh inwardly. Even though he knew bringing Miya to the Shiba siblings' house would cause tension given the strained relationship between her and her son, he still decided to bring the woman in wheelchair anyway since he had to prepare for a festival which was going to be held at his shrine and he had no desire to waste time just to repeat some very important (to them) information.

But more importantly, he wanted to see the surprise on the four faces at the same time after hearing what his information network had found so far. One costed lots of time while the other took a ton of favors just to get little information.

"Okay, now that we're all good." clapping his hands to get the attention of the four people in front of him, Yakumo said in his usual cheerful manner "Let's get start, shall we?"

"Have you found anything about Savior-sama, Yakumo-sensei?" despite Tatsuya's attempt to calm his sister down, the anxiety still managed to find its way to hers and Honami's eyes. Even Miya had a hint of genuine interest appeared briefly in her eyes.

"Yes, I have found some clues, Miyuki-chan." Yakumo gave the younger of the Shiba siblings an eye-smile before raising his hand a little bit to stop her as well as Honami from shooting anymore questions "But it will have to wait for a little while, for I wish to fulfill your brother's request first."

Nodding his head gracefully, Tatsuya asked the monk-wannabe in his usual serious tone

"So what did you find, sensei?"

"At the first glance, everything seems okay but after digging in much deeper, there are quite some inconsistency and some… shocking finding." said Yakumo after a faraway look "Watarimono Yuuto. 18 years old and will turn 19 this June. Started working as the First High's gardener since this year's February. He lives in quite a large japanese-style house not really far from here, a few hundred meters at best. No blood-relative family member…"

"No family member?" the bald man was cut off by a surprised Honami as the young woman now had a thoughtful look "That's strange. I remember there was this time Yuuto-san had mentioned about having an older brother to me."

"Hmm, another inconsistency..." hummed Yakumo "Anyway, he has ID card, driver license, insurance record, bank accounts and basically most of other basic documents."

"Most of?"

"Your gardener literally has no birth record or orphanage record, health record and educational record."

"Wait!" interjected Miyuki "If Watari-san has no birth record or orphanage record and health record then how can he have other papers, especially ID card, let alone applying for the job?"

"According to one of my informants, your gardener's papers were taken care took care of by 'a very influential friend'. " looks of confusion appeared on the three younger people "It took me a lot of favors and even a connection just to get the name of your gardener's mysterious friend."

"And who is it, sensei?" asked Tatsuya after seeing his sensei was doing a dramatic pause

"It's **Valery Fernand Vandelstam** , Tatsuya-kun." this surprised Tatsuya while his sister frowned slightly

"Wait, where did I hear that name before?" said Miyuki to herself though her question could be heard by everyone in the living room

"Valery Fernand Vandelstam, he is the head of the V&V Industries, one of a very few large businesses that none of the Ten Master Clans has any kind of influence over in any way or method." the last person in the room the room finally spoke "It is also the main competitor of many large companies and corporations, including the Four Leaves Technology."

"Ehh?!" exclaimed Miyuki as Honami was just as surprised as Miyuki. How could a gardener have such a powerful connection like that? "Do you know that person, okaa-san?"

"Personally, no. The man rarely appears in the public and the last time he appeared in public was sometime around 2093. A truly mysterious individual." continued Miya with her usual emotionless voice "Back then, the clan intended to have me married to him in order to gain some kind of control but the man immediately turned down. Thus, I was married to your 'father' in the end."

"Now that makes everything become understandable, given the 'influence' the V&V Industries can possess as well as its connection, not to mention Watari-san's strange 'self-defending tool' may come from this company…" even Tatsuya had a look of surprise on his face as he put a hand under his chin "Are those all you manage to find so far, sensei?"

"Yes, unfortunately. Those were all I could get my hand on so far despite my network's best attempt. The influence of your gardener's friend is not something can be taken lightly." said Yakumo solemnly.

"Is it possible that this 'gardener' is an experimental magician?" came Miyuki's theory as Miya looked like she was interested in this mysterious gardener whom her son was trying to investigate. Meanwhile this possibility made Honami's eyes widen as a memory resurfaced in her mind.

"It's a possibility, Miyuki-chan. However, we…"

"The day after Yuuto-san's duel with Morisaki…" once again, the monk-wannabe was cut off by Honami "… after knowing that he had broken 'only' two rib bones of said student, he did say that relying too much on magic made his skill become rusty in a rather dismissive manner."

Honami's revelation immediately brought alarming look onto the face of Shiba siblings but before they could say anything, Yakumo stopped them calmly

"Even if he was an experimental magician then it would only bring up more questions and all the answers we could come up with would only be hypotheses at best. Therefore, let's stop there until my information network can give you more solid info. Now I would like to give you the clue about the one who saved Miya-san, Miyuki-chan and Honami-san back in the invasion. "

And immediately, Yakumo got the undivided attention from the other four people so quick that he had to chuckle inwardly. Time to drop the bomb.

"Miyuki-chan, you do remember the lapel pin on the blazer you keep right?" after receiving the nod from the younger girl, he continued "Have you ever shown it to your school gardener?"

"Of course not. But what does Watari-san have to do with this?" asked Miyuki in confusion

"Back then, my information network had searched around thoroughly yet couldn't find anything that even remotely resemble to that lapel pin and I was 100% positive that lapel pin was one of a kind…" said Yakumo with a sigh "… until yesterday, I found the second one."

"And who has it, Yakumo-sensei?" asked Miyuki with urgency in her eyes while Honami looked like she was going jump out of her seat if it wasn't for her holding her emotions back.

But instead of answering the question, the bald man just put a book onto the table as Tatsuya read the title aloud

"First High's 2094-2095 Yearbook? You mean…"

"Open the page for the school staff and look up for your gardener."

In a blink of eyes, Miyuki snatched the book in a rather… unladylike manner and quickly turned to the indicated page. The moment her eyes was on the photo of Watarimono Yuuto, Miyuki was temporarily frozen before her fingers shook slightly in shock

In his half-body photo, Watarimono Yuuto, with Primy on his shoulder, was smiling pleasantly at the lens as he was clad in a brown suit, a white shirt, a sky blue tie and a brown fedora hat on the top of his head.

But the most important detail of this photo was a beautiful lapel pin on his blazer's left lapel. And said lapel looked identical to the one in Miyuki's possession.

"The worst scenario, Watarimono Yuuto will be the one who can give you more clues about your Savior-sama…" Yakumo couldn't help but let an amusing smile crept onto his face after seeing the surprise on the four faces after seeing the photo. Even Miya, who was supposed to be near emotionless, had a genuine shock expression on her face and it was way beyond his expectation.

"... And in the best scenario… your Savior-sama is much more closer than you think, Miyuki-chan."

(End chapter)

* * *

 **Author's note: At first, I intend to end the Enrollment Arc right in this chapter but after it reached about 8k words yet the end still not come, I had to divide it into smaller chapters while changing the plans for Minami at the same time. I guess 'Lord of Souls' will have to way a little longer （;￣□￣Ａ)**

 **Anyway, thank you everyone who has followed this story with me as well as gave me pointers and opinions . Finally, please read and review!**


	8. Chapter 8

_**Journal Entry December 25th, 2092**_

 _Nearly a month has passed and Chaldea is still pretty much a ghost while so far, I have found no clue or any signs showing there are still magus out there in Japan. Perhaps I put too much expectation in the possibility that those so-called 'Ancient Magic' families are magus families using the term 'ancient' to hide in the plain sight? From what I managed to get so far, while they hide their so-called 'secrets' like how magus hide magecraft well enough, it isn't hard to notice that they just use the same basic principle like those 'modern magic' with Psion on Pushions, not to mention I cannot 'sense' anything feel like prana from them. The only thing that can be considered similar to magecraft is how they cast with spell chants, talisman, magic circles, etc. instead of CAD. Maybe I will be lucky in other places that there are magus hide like how I expect?_

 _On a side note, now I understand why those from Yoshida Family, an 'ancient magic' family and my current study subject, can freely use 'spirit magic' without having Gaia going after their ignorant arse. The 'spirits' those wankers use are just merely bits of Eidos made from Pushions that were broken from the original one. Hell, calling those pathetic bits 'spirits' is a hard insult to real spirits._

 _Therefore, this time's 'spirit magic', namely the Yoshida's 'Divine Earth Magic', is one of many prime examples for the saying 'Pathetic ingredients will give you pathetic result'. I mean seriously?! Illusion! Motherfucking illusion, for the love of Root! Most of the Yoshida's spells I have seen so far use such large amount of energy (according to my research and speculate) to only conjure illusion that feels like real thing instead of creating something even remotely real! And I can easily dispel them with a single tiny 'burst' of my prana. Needless to say, I was really torn between mockingly laugh out loud or let out a few colourful curses. In the end, I decided to do both._

 _Muwahahahahahaha! 'Divine Earth Magic', my arse._

 _That aside, today is Christmas and the sound of snow is strangely endearing. To all my friends and even his immortal haughty (and sometimes can be quite a pain in the arse) companion,_

 _Merry Christmas._

* * *

 **Chapter 8**

On a street, a stunning beautiful girl with long blond hair tied into a pony tail and blue eyes was looking around, a luggage in her right hand while her left hand was holding a piece of paper as she looked around her trying to locate the place she needed to arrive. And so far, she hadn't found it.

"Excuse me, kind sir" her polite and melodic voice easily grasped the attention of a man standing with his wife near there "Do you know where this place is?"

It took a few seconds for the man to find his voice as his wife gave him a heavy scowl the moment she saw a light blush appeared on her partner's cheek.

"Huh?… Oh, sure! Let's see… Hoshi street…" said the man after taking a look at the piece of paper in her left hand "You go straight that way until the third crossroad, turn left and go straight to the first crossroad and turn right. You can't miss it. Though I'm afraid you will have to ask the people there to know where this 'Watarimono household' is."

"Thank you for your kindness, sir." with a deep bow of gratitude, the girl turned around and continued her walk without seeing the wife pinched the cheek of the man she had just asked direction and made him yelp in pain.

* * *

Okay, he honestly didn't expect to hear about this after arriving at his workplace in the afternoon to check whether everything was still okay or not.

And fortunately, everything was okay. Thank Root.

 **Asa ga konai mama de iki ga dekita nara/ If I could breathe my breath without seeing the coming of the morning,**

"Huh? The Shiba siblings, Sakurai-san and Saegusa-san wanted to speak to me?" he asked with a slight raise of his eyebrow while trying his best to stiff a long yawn from escaping his lip. The music could only do so much in helpings Perhaps just tonight, he would go to bed early without his usual round of drinking. A shame, he thought grimly before taking a sip of Tokaji from his flask and enjoyed the sweetness dancing on the tip of his tongue.

"Yes, senpai." said Mash, who worked as his replacement for today since he had departed to Fuyuki yesterday afternoon and had just returned to First High half an hour ago. Primy had immediately taken a liking to the pink hair girl and whenever he wasn't around, the furball would stick to her. "Shiba-san and Sakurai-san said they needed to confirm something very important with you. Saegusa-san said she wanted to ask for your help in keeping the school not become too chaotic since today her Public Moral Committee would be busy with an open forum today."

 **Tooi tooi natsu no mukou e/ I'll go beyond the far, far summer days**

That was it? He had expected she wanted to start whatever plan she had been keeping in that cute head of her back then. Had he been too paranoid? Or was this just a tiny step in a bigger step of her grand scheme? That aside...

"What kind of confirmation?" His eyebrow raised a little bit more while his fingers never stopped moving slightly along the melody coming from his music player. Sakurai-san he could understand since she was his friend but the Shiba siblings? He barely knew those two and he hadn't talked to them since their first time meeting after dealing with the wanker named Mori-blahblahblah.

"They said they wanted to ask you directly, senpai, so I didn't ask further than that. Moreover, I didn't feel any ill intention coming from them. Only… How should I put it?… Desperation and hope?"

Ah, that was understandable. If he and the Demi-servant of Shield had swapped their positions to each other, he would have done the same. But still, desperation and hope huh? Now things just became weirder.

 **Tsumetaku nai kimi no tenohira ga mieta/ I see your palms, they are not cold to me,**

"If you came back a little earlier, you might have met them and known what they wanted." said Musashi after finishing her share of the late lunch, which was a large luxury sushi set he had bought for the two Heroic Spirit as a form of compensation "Just what took you so long? Does wedding preparation take as much time as back in Edo era?"

"Not really." He shrugged slightly before putting away his rien pipe. "Just some minor unexpected troubles came up and required more time to solve."

Honestly, if it hadn't been for the Emiya lad stopping him , he would have inflicted the Constipation Curse upon that jackass of restaurant manager or a Gandr Shot into the bastard's face. Fucking greedy disastrous useless brain-dead wanker…

 **Awai asayake no yozora/ In the faint morning glow**

That aside, he must admitted that preparing for this upcoming wedding was really tiresome. However, to be able to see the last two members of the two magus lines Emiya and Matou to be happy in each other's arms in one of their most important days of a human's life made all of his effort worth it. And while said young couple had insisted that the wedding he prepared for them was more than enough for a wedding gift, that didn't mean he would have to agree with them. After all, another plan of his was already in motion so that the wedding would end in _style._

 **Natsu ga konai mama no machi o ima/ Now I'm in the town where summer is yet to come**

Hmm, perhaps a marriage planner was not a bad choice for a side occupation. In a bright scenario, it would give him some valuable experience in planning marriage ceremony if he was lucky to find someone to have a big family with and settle down… With a sigh, he took off his blazer and fedora hat and held them in his left arm. The weather of this afternoon was unusually hot. If this continued in the next few days, he might have…

 **Aa ai no iro yoake to hotaru/ Ah, the dark blue night sky and the fireflies**

*CRASH!*'

Before his thought could go any further, the loud sound of the school gate crashed down snapped him out of his train of thought as numerous black trucks came into the campus ground. And right after the end of the song, too. How lucky.

"Oi, Musashi, Mash." He indicated toward the trucks and the Heroic Spirit and the half-servant immediately stood up from their position as Primy jumped onto his shoulder. "Did you two hear anything from the school staff about any kind of delivery or convoy that is allowed to pull this whole 'crashing the gate entry'?"

"Of course not. And what's with that look you're sending me, Master?!" said Musashi as she seemed flustered "I know well when I should pay attention and when I don't have to, you know!"

"Neither do I, senpai" said Mash with a small shake of her head. Yep, things were basically screaming 'suspicious' now.

Immediately after Mash's response, a large number of men jumped down from said truck, firearms in their hands with many even possessed rocket launchers. Oh dear.

"Rocket launcher, open fire!" cried one of the man who seemed to be the field commander as they took aim at the school building.

Yep, this was going to be messy. And just when the next song started playing, too. It had been a while since the last time he had heard it. And the current situation was coincidentally quite similar to the time back then, to be more precise.

* * *

In the the auditorium, the open forum between the Alliance and the 'Course 1' student was reaching to its climax as the president of the Student Council was delivering her speech. However, Miyuki didn't pay attention to it in the slightest, given that her mind since the previous evening had been paying attention to only one person, Watarimono Yuuto.

Confirmation. Just a few confirmation and it would be more than enough to clear away all the remaining doubt and prove that the gardener was her Savior-sama, the one who had saved her along with her mother and Honami back then in the invasion. His clothes in the photo and the lapel pin might not be enough to prove but with that familiar feeling when she had first met him combined with the support from Honami since she had spent a lot of time with the gardener to confirm the familiar feeling? Some might consider that she was too rushed with the assumption but those were all her sharp woman's intuition needed to know in order to reach her final conclusion. And speaking about Honami, Miyuki couldn't deny that she felt a hint of jealousy just by thinking how much time the Guardian had spent with her savior and got to know more about him.

Clutching the small velvet box she used to keep the lapel pin so that she could bring the precious possession to school, Miyuki silently prayed the forum would end soon for it was painfully obvious that the Alliance would lose anyway since they couldn't provide any evidence for their cause and she doubted they could turn the table after Mayumi finished her speech…

*BOOM!*

A deafening explosion followed by some more blasts shocked everyone in the auditorium and snapped Miyuki out of her thought. Before she could understand what just happened, all hell broke loose.

* * *

"Are you okay, senpai?" asked the Demi-servant of Shield, her attire along with her glasses had been replaced by her combat attire as her black shield stood protectively between his group and the bunch of attacker. The explosion caused by a veered off course rocket couldn't made a single scratch on the cross-shaped shield. Of course, this didn't go unnoticed by those wankers and they started shooting at his group only to meet the same result.

 **Nozomu mono wa nido to modoranu/ The things we want are the things that shall never return**

"Good as new. Thank you for your concern, Mash." he said simply. The protection was unnecessary but he was grateful nonetheless. With a snap of his left fingers, the bounded field he set on the campus changed from 'hibernate' mode to 'active' mode while his right hand finished increasing his music player's volume to the highest. Now no one could get in or get out of the school until he deactivated the bounded field. Oh, and it could help him keep track of any hostiles in the bounded field. Ah, this was why he loved Runic magecraft so much.

 **Towa ni kawaranu yo no kotowari/ such is the rule forever governing this world we live in.**

"So… What are we going to do now, Master?" asked Musashi, her blue and crimson combat attire replaced her grey gardening clothes as her swords were ready in her hands. Damn, he must admitted both of his companions looked really sexy in their own way.

"Hmm…" he mused to himself while his mind was focusing on the whole mental campus map that his bounded field transmitted to him. "… Quite a lot of hostiles and a lot of ground to cover… Alright, Musashi you take care of that wing. Mash, you take care of the other wing. Primy and I will handle the rest."

With a nod, Musashi took off toward her direction while Mash seemed hesitant.

"I'll be fine, don't worry." he assured the light pink hair girl while putting on his blazer and fedora hat "I promise they wouldn't be able to cause a even the smallest wound."

 **Toukyou to iu machi wa kurushiku/ This city of Tokyo is such a suffocating place,**

Nodding her head, albeit reluctantly, Mash took off to the opposite wing as he turned to the attacker. Gunshots continued to fire at him but none of the bullet could hit him...

"All-all the bullets went pass him?!" exclaimed random attacker #1 as said attacker pointed a finger at him. Now that wasn't polite, you know.

"Ho-how is that possible?!" cried random attacker #2 with a hint of fear

"What trickery is this?!" said random attacker #3 outrageously.

"The power of the **True Magic** , of course!" He couldn't help but smirk inwardly as he could see some brought out their cast-jamming device after hearing his taunt. Ha! As if those things could save them. For a very brief moment, he was tempted to let out another mocking boast but it was easily swatted away. That would be rather impolite to people who was going to die. Anyway,..

 **Hitori namida mo dezu/ I can't even shed a tear, even in my solitude.**

"Fire!" another round of shooting started but of course, the result was the same. Shrugging at the pitiful attempt, he put two fingers between his lips and blew out a whistle, signaling Primy to jump down from his shoulder and in just a blink of eyes, standing in the place of the cute little white furball was the unsightly monstrous form of The White Beast of Calamity. And the moment its gaze was directed at the attackers, screams of terrors spread like wildfire as all the front line attackers looked like they was looking at their very own **death**.

"Good boy, Primy!" he said to his buddy before affectionately cupping the beast's head while his head indicated toward the shaking men. "Now, can you please be a dear and help me clean the school ground off these wankers?"

With a happy lick on his face, the white demonic wolf gently nudged him back before it gaze turned into a bloodthirsty glare, making many attackers fell onto the ground out of fear.

And the murderous howl of the Primate Murder echoed throughout the school soon would become the last thing they heard in their worthless life.

(Chapter end)

* * *

 **Author's note: First of all, I want to apologize for the long wait and in my defense, it wasn't entirely intentional. Too busy with my real life (4 semester essays and my job); Lord of Souls' plot bunnies keep pestering my insanity; choosing whether Gero's, Wagakki Band's or GARNiDELiA's music is more suitable as the opening for a very 'abnormal' character; trying to adapt to Rainbow Six Siege's playstyle and the continuous death because of friendly fire; doing all kind of shenanigans with my friends in Payday 2's Crime Feast; Fallout: New Vegas with certain mods is quite hard to resist but most importantly, nearly 6k words including a whole fluff scene with Miyuki of this update were discarded straight into the garbage can because I encountered a 'noble, faithful and pure as driven snow' girl. Hell, she nearly made me throw this whole fic out of the window in order to rewrite this fic so that she could be put in the most dominant position in the harem after a whole week researching about her.** **Ah, just seeing her spin is more than enough to make me continuously have an eyegasm.**

 **Anyway, rewrite this update was really exhausting and I must admit, there are some parts that even I'm still not entirely satisfied but with my limited writing skill, I can only hope that I will be able to fix it in the near future. At least my writing is back on track again.**

 **Finally, here is the list of harem so far:**

 **Fate side: Lancer, Saber, Shielder, Caster**

 **Mahouka side: Shiba Miyuki, Sakurai Honami, Saegusa Mayumi/ Mibu Sayaka/ Shiba Miya/ Angelina Kudou Shields, ?**

 **The final girl from another series: V***** E***********

 **Those are all. Only one position is undecided and depend on said person, the third position will be decided from the narrow down list.**

 **Well, that's all for now. Please read and review!**


	9. Chapter 9

_**Journal Entry December 29th, 2092**_

 _Irony, is it not?_

 _One of my goals in this particular journey is to find more human magus so that I may get a clue for my other goal as well as to know more what the hell has been happening since the day I and my brother departed to the Akashic Record . Yet I eradicated most of the remain of the first magus line that I came into contact out of anger, all because they wanted to create some kind of 'Holy Grail' that, theoretically speaking, could grant any kind of wishes by using a girl as a vessel for said grail, which somehow was TAINTED right from the very beginning. Ah, the foolishness of human or in this case, magus, truly has no bound._

 _Still, I will never regret the decision to erase them from this world. The risk of something go wrong is just as big as my desire to see my brother one more time. And after digging through the workshop of the biggest maggot_ named Matou Zouken, who happened to be her grandfather, _the only regret I may have is that my kill was too fast and too efficient for what the twisted despicable maggot and the bastard who happened to be the older brother of the girl, had inflicted upon the poor girl in such a long time. From what I have observed so far, it seems the Emiya lad is the reason why the Matou girl's sanity is still 'quite' intact after what she has endured._ _I would hate to have her along with the Emiya lad killed out of mercy after saving her._

 _That reminds me, I hope the jet black hair MILF I saved back then in the invasion will heed my advice. While I believe the two younger girls will be okay, that doesn't apply to the oldest woman of the three. Her guilt and regret were so gigantic that they forced my brother's Mystic Code to violently react to her. Unless she either forgives herself or uses that gigantic regret as motivation_ to _do something 'right' to fix the cause of her guilt and regret, she will die (probably by self-abuse) in the matter of months even after the complete healing._

 _Which will turn one of my healing sapphires into a waste. Granted, I can easily create hundreds in a day (All hail First Magic! Muwahahahahahahaha!) if I really wish and put my mind into it but meh, still a waste nonetheless._ _¯\\_(ツ)_/¯_

 _Back to the Emiya lad, to think there is a descendant of the infamous Magus Killer in this time. A very nice and welcoming surprise indeed. While he is_ _initially and completely inept as a magus and even a reckless one (For the love of Root, he temporarily and inadvertently converted parts of his nerves into makeshift Magic Circuits!), his unorthodox abilities can not be taken_ _lightly. If both the Matou girl and the Emiya lad truly wants more than a few pointers and some guidance, perhaps I will consider to take the two of them as apprentices. And to be honest, it is not a bad idea._

 _Beside, I will have the perfect scapegoat whenever I want to start a 'whisker marks drawing' war with Scathach. Seriously, that woman._ _Rather than looking for one thing about her life to hate and trying to end it, why don't she find a hundred things to love and a reason to enjoy life?_

 _Moreover,_ _why hasn't I revealed that I can grant her that wish?_ _A_ _nd why does I even care anyway?_

* * *

 **Chapter 9**

 **Izu no sora wa totemo yasashiku/ The sky of Izu looks so gentle**

"Good boy, Primy. And thank you for doing such an exceptional job like usual." he affectionately scratched the chin of his pet with his right hand, his other hand's fingers moved slightly along the melody coming from his music player as his eyes looked at the surrounding. The beautiful scene of the courtyard had been vanquished. All the lively colors of the plants he had brought in with his own hands were dyed crimson with blood. The ground was littered with brutally disfigured corpses beyond recognized, firearms and destroyed vehicles. One hell of picture with the 'bloodbath' theme, he might add.

"Fou!" Primy, who was sitting on his left shoulder after returning to his Cath Palug form, puffed its chest proudly and made him smile in amusement. It had been what? About two and a half years? Yes, about that, since the last time the White Beast of Gaia had a stretch in its real form and this was a good chance to let loose, even if it was only in just two or three seconds.

 **Sugaritsuku yō ni tobidashita/ that I headed straight for it, as if in desperation.**

Anyway, if only these fools, whether they were terrorists or some kind of rebels or whatever the hell they were, hadn't charged in here weapons blazing for whatever reasons they had, the scenery wouldn't have been ruined into this. Oh how quickly things changed in just a blink of eyes. What a pity.

Oh well. At least on a minor bright side, all these corpses probably wouldn't be wasted. Free fertilizer wasn't something he could come across everyday. Hmm, since he had no desire to make Primy turn back into his real form to do such a mundane task like keeping guard and not letting anyone touch his free fertilizer, who should he summon to do that...

 **Seishun no hibi nayami tsukushite/ I've spent all the days of my youth tormenting myself about everything,**

With a snap of his fingers, a blue magic appeared on the ground before blue and black flame spurted out out as the sound of chains clanking echoed to his ears, signaling the presence of the newcomer. Unnatural blue flames were burning in its eyes and jaw while demonic black flames were dancing on its body. Its headless rider whose tattered shell wrapped around a cold furry of sapphire flame as he writhe about like a puppet under strings, dancing to the tunes of its master. But who was his master? One wondered.

"Easy there, boy." he patted the beast's head as a loud growl escaped it throat. Since the beast's name was kinda mouthful, perhaps he should shorten it... "Hmm... Can I call you Lobo for short?"

Another growl along with a weird gesture from its headless rider were the answer he received, making him chuckled a little bit.

"Lobo it is" he tenderly ruffed the beast's fur as his eyes gazed directly at its literally burning eyes "Can you please be a dear and guard the courtyard for me? If anyone try to touch any of the corpses, feel free to kill them. Okay?"

 **Kodoku dake o osore/ fearing solitude more than anything else.**

A bloodthirsty howl was the confirmation he needed as Primy shot the beast a condescending look. Couldn't blame the furball since comparing to Primy, Lobo was no more than a puppy and still had a long way to go if he wished to reduce its preys into a mess with just one howl like how Primy did.

Or in the current case to be more precise, stopped all the fighting throughout the school unless the current deafening silence indicated anything else. Oh well, if he decided to keep the gigantic wolf around, Lobo might have more time to improve.

Flicking his left wrist a little bit, he could feel his Mystic Code materialized under the sleeve and tied into his wrist as the cold sensation made him let out a relaxing sigh. Turning his gaze to the school building, he could feel the corner of his lips turned upward a little bit as the first line of his favorite aria was chanted in his mind.

 _ **'The beginning First changed everything...'**_

The humming melody of his magic circuits sounded quite exciting this time and it couldn't be help. While he enjoyed the peace he had, some minor chaotic bloody fights here and there was often welcomed as long as some criteria were satisfied.

And this time, these wankers had satisfied one of those criteria. How fortunate.

* * *

"All of you! Quick! Go to somewhere safe!" cried Honami in a desperate attempt to shake her students out of their cowering and whimpering terrified state as the same state was also applied to the terrorists. Even though being a teacher at the First High was nothing more than just a ruse for her real duty, she would be damned if she left these kids here to their own dead. But still, a small part of her mind was questioning her.

Where could her students go? Was there even any place in this school considered safe? Especially with the cause of this state was still out there?

A howl. A bloodthirsty and murderous howl. A howl that anyone who had participated in the Okinawa Invasion could never forget. A howl belonged to the unidentified entity named **The** **Demon Wolf of Okinawa** by the 101 Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion. A howl that carried the absolute right of killing and could reduce any will to fight back or run away into dust. A howl that could even freeze Shiba Tatsuya, who wasn't even afraid of his death, in his place back in Okinawa. Hell, the only reason Honami could still stand on her feet right now was because this wasn't the first time she heard that murderous howl. Even so, she could still feel her knees buckling just by the phantom feeling of death lingering in the air.

"Wow. Yuuto-sama sure is pissed to let loose like that."

A familiar voice snapped Honami out of her thought as she turned to the source of the voice. Miyamoto Musashi, the assistant of her Hero-sama, was coming from the end of the corridor. Her grey gardening clothes were replaced by a beautiful blue combat kimono with crimson garments and greaves. Two bloody katanas were in her hands as two other in scabbard were hanging on her hip. Unlike when Honami had met her a few hours ago, the cheerful and lively look in Musashi's eyes now was replaced by a dry gaze as the swordwoman looked at her surrounding.

Wait. Why was she holding two bloody swords?! Was she a part of the terrorists?! And what did she mean by 'Yuuto-sama is pissed.'? Had he returned? What did her Hero-sama have to do with this? And why did she referred to him as 'sama'?

"Oh hey, Sakurai-san. Didn't see you there." said Musashi dryly as she flicked her two katana to get rid of the blood on them before putting them back in the scabbards. Unlike "And no need to be hostile like that. I'm not your enemy."

"And why should I trust you are not my enemy? And what does Yuuto-san have to do with this? Why did you refer to Yuuto-san as 'sama'?" said Honami cautiously, magic sequence was ready to burst to life from her CAD...

And then _it_ hit her.

"Ku!" Her instinct flared to life, forcing her to jump back as the barrier that once had protected Tatsuya in the Okinawa Naval Defense Battle came into life, separating the Guardian from the pinkish hair swordwoman.

"If I was your enemy, you and your students wouldn't even live right now." Musashi's dry response snapped Honami out of her shock. The swordwoman hadn't moved even an inch from her position as Honami took a look at herself to see there was not even a single scratch! But she swore she saw herself getting numerous slashes in just a blink of eyes! Was it illusion? But it felt too real to be considered an illusion!

"An advice for you, Sakurai-san: Whatever business you and that Shiba girl have with Yuuto-sama, do not annoy Yuuto-sama any further or else no one will know what stunt he will pull. See you around, Sakurai-san. I still have my duty."

"Wait! You still haven't answered my other questions!"

* * *

'Where am I?'

It was the first thing came to Miya's mind the moment she opened her eyes. Instead of the familiar ceiling of her house, she found herself staring at the another familiar scene, albeit much more horrid, bloodier and even unfamiliar at the same time.

The Okinawa Defense Navel Battle back in 2092. Men threw themselves into the no man zone and fell into the embrace of death. Sounds of planes, ships, vehicles, weapons and magic screaming throughout the battlefield mixed together into a chaotic symphony of Ares. The beautiful shore now was no more than a barren land of death and destruction. Despite all of those, the fast-paced yet comforting music along with the two male vocals, one was husky and deep while theother was clear and had a natural vibrato, still echoed to her ears and gave her a relaxing feeling...

Wait, music? In the middle of the invasion? How on Earth...

"Ma, ma, ma." a soft and pleasant voice coming from right next to her immediately gained her attention "You have done a splendid job, no? No need to be sad like that."

Standing right next to her was Watarimono Yuuto, the First High's gardener who her daughter and Honami believed to be the one who had not only saved the three of them back then but also changed their lives with his advices.

 _"Look, I don't know you and honestly, I don't give a flying fuck about what you have done to have such a gigantic guilt and regret like that and whether you think should die or not. If you truly have the slightest remorse for whatever you have done, continue to live on until you get killed by someone or your time runs out. Beside, if you wishes to seek punishment, to stay alive and make amends for what you have done is much harder and more painful than dying, no?_ _"_

The flash of memory made a small beautiful smile appear on the face of the emotionless woman. Even though the advice had sounded a little rude, it really had opened her eyes. Without it, she wouldn't have stopped herself from seeking death and tried to make amends for what she had done. Even though there were still many things hadn't been fixed, namely her relationship with her twin sister and her son, Miya could still see how true the young gardener's advice was.

And for that, she was truly grateful.

"Foufou." chirped the strange small animal on his left shoulder that also looked like the one in the photo. Aside from his missing blazer, Yuuto looked identical to the photo she had seen in the year book, albeit slightly younger comparing to the photo which was understandable. Miya must admitted that from the angle she was looking, the young man did have a strange unique and attractive charm even though he certainly wasn't the most handsome man she had met, not to mention his powerful yet relaxed aura that made her felt like she was engulfed by a warm blanket. Ever since her divorce not long after the end of the invasion, this was the first time a male could really gain the attention of her like this. If only she was 10 years younger, perhaps...

"Okay, geez you cheeky furball." the young man chuckled slightly, showing no sign that he was aware of Miya's presence. Curious, Miya reached toward the young man only to see her hand went through him like an illusion. So this was just...

Suddenly, the thunderous sound coming from the sea caught her attention as Miya turned back to see the destructive blast created from her son's Material Burst completely annihilated the invading force.

"Hot damn. That was quite an explosion. Maybe a little bigger than the one in Hiroshima." the young man muttered with a somewhat amusing tone as the tsunami crashed into the shore, thus causing further damage on the shore. While Miya didn't show it, she could feel a hint of pride rose in her heart after seeing how powerful her son was...

"Perhaps I should join the fun?"

"Fou!"

However, Miya didn't expect to hear what Yuuto spoke next as her head quickly turned to the illusion of the young man as Yuuto raised his right palm toward the sky.

 **Mai od** oru **hoshi _kuzu_ egaita** kon **o mac _hi de_ / I** was **sket _chi_ ng the d**ancin **g stard _ust in_ this utopia,**

A large violet magic circle suddenly appeared under his feet, making Miya step back in surprise. Aside from not seeing anything that looked or felt like a CAD or something Ancient magician would use as medium, Miya could feel absolutely NO Psion or Pushion was coming from Yuuto yet she could feel something powerful was pulsing along the melodic aria.

His pleasant voice joined with the two vocal of the current song, thus creating a harmonious yet strange aria.

The light of the magic circle shone brighter, as if challenging the darkness to erase it from existence.

 **War** atter **u nai _te iru_ ikite **iru **/ whe** re I am **laugh _ing, cryi_ ng, and living.**

The sky became distorted as clouds gather more and more.

Thunders tore through the sky with their gleeful laugh and naughty strike.

The air around him thickened, the pressure skyrocketed as if trying to force everything into the ground.

 **Ky** ou mo **mat _a yo_ zora ni **egaita **higen _jits_ u/ Toda**y, too, I' **m ske _tching_ fanta**sies onto **the ni _ght sky_.**

Miya could hear them.

Numerous distorted phantom voices started joining the melody. They sang, they chanted, they shouted, they cheered, they roared. All of those voices mashed up with Yuuto's voice and the song into a chaotic and incoherent chorus.

Yet it didn't feel wrong. It felt so right and overwhelming that it took all of her will to force herself stand on her feet.

But the moment her eyes turned to the sky, her knees couldn't withstand the shock she was experiencing and let the charming woman fall onto the ground as she realized what had just arrived.

From the sky, burning crimson light pierced through the cloudy veil before a burning **meteor** stepped into the main stage. With the grace and the speed of a hawk catching its prey, it fell straight toward the shore near where Tatsuya's Material Burst explosion had gone off as screams of terror could be heard throughout the battlefield.

 **Nani** mo **ka _mo_ nogar _eyou_ no nai g**enji **tsu/ This is a r** eal wor **ld where no _thing will_ ever escape from **me **.**

" **The Lucifer's Hammer.** " Miya muttered the name the 101 Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion had called this event almost shakily. And the moment the burning meteor met its destination...

 ***BOOOMM!***

.. it was safe to assume that the destructive blast and its calamitous destruction caused by the burning meteor will be forever imprinted in her memory before everything around her turn black.

 **(End chapter)**

* * *

 **Author's note: Fuck Material Burst, for meteor is da best! Muwahahahahahaha!**

 **Okay, time to be serious.**

 **Everyone, I'm sorry to make you wait this long and if it helps, you can blame Ubisoft with their Rainbow Six Siege (HiromuUshio is my Uplay IGN, hope I can meet someone of my dear readers in a match). On the other hand, the beautiful and elegant pure smile of Violet Evergarden and to a small extend, my confession to the girl I like which was turned down are what pushed me to finish this chapter. After the end of this arc (about 1-2 update), it would be approximately about 1,5 - 2 months until the start of the Nine School Competition arc and I will use this time to let Yuuto troll and mess with the people as well as establish bonds with the girls. The events list below is what I intend so far**

 **\- The hellish trainer/instructor and his Test/ Death Game**

 **\- Ten Master Clans? And? Only that? That name is not suitable for those wankers**

 **\- A visit to his past and the Everlasting Violet Garden**

 **\- Oh dear, there goes his Golden Week vacation.**

 **\- The Chaotic Birthday**

 **\- The Emiya Wedding**

 **\- From below or from the side, which one Orihime and Hikoboshi would prefer to watch firework?**

 **\- You think you can review for tests while listening to music?! Turn it off right now!**

 **\- Having a child at age 19? Well, okay... Wait, what?**

 **Not all these events will be used. 2 are already decided, some will** **be kept, some will be discarded or maybe combined. If you have any opinions about what you wish to see or any good ideas, please leave a review or a PM, they are always welcomed. Oh and I won't spoil what will happen in these events, you will have to guess what these events will bring.**

 **P/s: Since I received a PM to add a 10th girl and I decided 'Why not?', who can guess the VERSION of the last song (who covered, don't worry I dropped hint in the chapter) I use as the aria in the end can decide the 10th girl in the harem. HOWEVER, she will be limited to Mahouka side only.** **Finally, please read and review! We fanfiction writers continue to write because of that!**


	10. Announcement and Author Rant

**Announcement and Author Rant**

Just as the name suggest, this is an announcement. And no worry, I won't stop writing this fic. Just some important information after all and answer some questions I haven't answered

First of all is the pairings/harem. It is already decided and here is the final list. No more change or add or remove. If anyone decide to drop this fanfic due to the pairing/harem is not like their preference, I want to thank you very much for following this fanfic to this point even though I won't receive any opinion from you guys if you decide to give me one.

 **Fate side: Scathach, Miyamoto Musashi, Mash Kyrielight, Da Vinci**

 **Mahouka side: Shiba Miyuki, Sakurai Honami, Saegusa Mayumi, Shiba Miya, Yotsuba Maya**

 **Other: Violet Evergarden**

Originally, Maya was not included in the harem and her position was reserved for Jeanne or Sayaka or Raikou or even Mari. Hell, I even had a whole grand plan for Yuuto to troll the Yotsuba clan head into oblivion. However, after being pestered by plot bunnies coming from two of my readers (Yes, I am talking about you two, **enigma95** and **Kreceir** ) and I couldn't shoot all of them down, Maya has made her way into the pairing and I must admit, she does have her own charm that even I can't resist (┛◉Д◉)┛彡┻━┻. Meanwhile, Violet Evergarden will be the one who holds a vital key in Yuuto's character development given her background (of course I will have to twist it a little bit for the sake of this fic). Funny enough, Violet can also go rather well with Tatsuya but that bunny soon died before it could mature and annoy me to no end, muwahahahahahahahahaha!

Next, the poll for the events before the Nine School Competition Arc is up and will be available until the release of the next update. While the poll will probably act more or less as preference for my writing but who knows, it may still influence the story quite heavily. (=^･ω･^=). If anyone who have interesting ideas, just put it in a review or PM, they are always welcomed.

Now to answer some questions

1/ Except for the Watarimono siblings and another one will appear in the future, every minor characters I have use so far are not OC. Van-Fem, Merem are actual characters from Nasuverse.

2/ Yuuto have used True Magics since the beginning of this fic. Just because it is True Magic it doesn't have to be flashy.

3/ I understand some of you are annoyed with the songs in this fic. However, the songs, especially **Izu no Odoriko** , play a very important in this fic as well as Yuuto's actual abilities.

Well, that's all for this announcement and rant. Thank you everyone for taking your time and reading this.

 **P/s: In need of proof-reader**


	11. Chapter 10

_**Journal Entry January 1st, 2093**_

 _Happy new year. If one ask if there are any guaranteed peaceful moments in this world, this day is one of those. The first day of a new year when everyone hope for something good will come or maybe their desired goals and ambition will be achieved. However, I never expected Scathach to stop voicing her desire to die. Sure that doesn't mean she would stop seeking anyway to kill herself the later days but that is an improvement nonetheless._

 _Again, why do I even care anyway?_

 _That aside, a little sad that the Emiya lad turned down my offer but then again, it would be a lie if I said it was unexpected. Everyone has their own war for their own reasons and to the redhead lad, that Matou girl is more than enough to make him declare war against against the world if neccessary. Beside, the Magus Killer's descendant has no desire to learn more about magecraft than the pointers I gave him him and prefer a quiet peaceful life with his violet hair girlfriend._

 _Well, at least I can prepare a grand wedding for them. Hell, if those two weren't deserved to have something good happened in their life, I'm not sure who was deserved (except me, of course.)_

 _Anyway, I must admit Florence is quite a nice place. Perhaps I will take a short detour to Tuscany. Since it is the_ _hometown of Leonardo Da Vinci, I_ _might find something interesting there. Maybe some kind of dirt old blueprints or some kind of relics for souvenir or better, a clue about Chaldea._

 _Who know, I might even meet a descendant of Da Vinci himself. And that would be really interesting._

* * *

 **Chapter 10**

"Sir!" The voice of his First Lieutenant snapped the Lieutenant Colonel in charge of the National Defense Force 101st Brigade, Kazama Harunobu, out of his train of thought and forced him to move his eyes up from the photos in his hands

"Yes, Lieutenant." the middle-age man said gruffly as the granddaughter of Kudou Retsu passed a folder to him.

"Here is the report that you request, sir." With a small nod, the man put the photos to the side and started skimming through the folder's contain. The woe of being the head of the unit was to deal with such trivial thing like this. Goddamn paperwork.

"Sir, these photos..." Kazama took out his pen and signed on the second paper as Fujibayashi Kyouko picked up a photo "... aren't they the photos of Okinawa after the invasion?"

Nodding grimly, Kazama signed onto another paper before putting the papers back into the folder and leaning back into his chair. Roughly three more months and it would be three years ever since the day The Lucifer's Hammer, a burning meteorite that had fallen onto the battlefield of the Okinawa Defense Navel Battle. While the Demon Wolf of Okinawa had slaughtered most of Great Asian Union infantries and everything in its path and Shiba Tatsuya, who was also known as Ooguro Ryuuya, had wiped out Union's fleet with his Material Burst, the fire blast caused by the meteorite's impact had annihilated the rest of the Union's force along with 80% percent of the defense force. Its radius was twice as big as Tatsuya's explosion and its flame had burned everything in its radius to the point the only thing had been left to be seen when the fire had finally snuffed out was the barren dead landmass.

And then the after-effects had immediately followed. Right after the tsunami created by Tatsuya's explosion had met the shore, an even bigger tsunami along with an earthquake of 9.2 magnitude had hit the land. To make the matter even worse, four large extinct submarine volcanoes near Okinawa's shore had been literally jump-started by the impact and continued to be active since then, thus changing Okinawa sea from an area holding great strategic values to an unpredictable and dangerous sea area.

But the true horror wasn't anything mentioned above. It was how the meteorite had appeared that terrified not only Japan but also all other countries and factions around the world. After all, a meteorite hitting Earth was not something could be covered and hid away no matter how influential a country was.

The Lucifer's Hammer hadn't come from the dark space out there, or else all satellites and space stations would foresee it and find a way to not let it hit the Earth. According to the only satellite that had luckily managed to catch a glimpse of the meteorite, the destructive burning rock had literally appeared **out of thin air** somewhere at the thermosphere layer before falling down to earth! And in such an impossible scenario like that, there was only one horrifying answer that could explain how such thing was possible.

The Lucifer's Hammer was the result of magic and no matter what kind of that magic was, it was something very far beyond humanity's current knowledge and understanding of magic.

Its sheer calamitous and terrifying power, its scale of intensity along with its magnitude of destruction had been so ridiculous that unless at least 6 strategic-class magicians or 3 out of 10 heads of The Ten Master Clans **with preparation** combined their power together and a special Magic Sequence to let many people casting one magic at the same time, it would have been impossible to even create something that was half as devastating as what the Lucifer's Hammer had caused.

Not only reducing everything to ash, its flame couldn't have been extinguished by any means, from normal to magical means or even two tsunamis, and it had burnt in **10** **days straight**! And its heat had turned the soil in various places into lechatelierite, thus some scientists called this progress as 'glassing', to the point it would have taken a century to restore those place back to the former 'habitable' state.

Its sudden appearance and its falling speed, which had only taken about **5 seconds** according to the time the satellite had managed to barely catch the glimpse of it and the time it had made impact, literally had left no chance to counter or destroy the gigantic burning rock even if Tatsuya's ability might have been able to destroy it.

With everything had mentioned before, the disastrous aftereffects the burning meteorite had brought and could 'potentially' brought, combined with the fear of the unknown it only took a day for the Magic Association, the USNA and Japan to created a whole new magic class just for it alone instead of putting it in the Forbidden Spell or Strategic-Class category.

 **The Apocalypse-Class Magic**.

Such a fitting name, Kazama thought grimly. And whoever could cast that kind of magic, regardless of single-handedly or with help from other magicians...

"Soon it will be three years and even with the other governments' and special forces' collaboration, everything only leads to dead ends." the lieutenant colonel massaged his temples tiredly "Just the possibility of an Apocalypse-class magician might exist out there is more than enough to make all sides agree to stop war and sign treaties out of fear, I just can't imagine what would happen if that possibility turned into reality."

"My grandfather has continuously tried to investigate about it but from the last time I heard from him, the results were just the same". The information didn't surprise Kazama in the slightest. Of course The Master Clans as well as magician families would try to get their hand on this Apocalypse-class Magic. Hell, perhaps some of them had already started researching a way to replicate it in those institutes.

And the leader of the 101st Brigade couldn't help but shudder internally when he thought about the scenario of the Demon King of the Far East, Yotsuba Maya got her hand on the Apocalypse-class Magic. That woman... he had only met her once and talked for about five minutes yet it had been more than enough for him to hazard a guess about what she could and would bring with such destructive power in her hand.

* * *

*sneeze* Ugh, some assholes were talking behind his back, that was for sure. If he got his hands on them, he would make them regret they couldn't keep their mouth shut.

"Enemy down the corridor there! Fir... Guuhh!" the terrorist had no chance to finish what he was yelling as he along with his subordinates fell dead onto the floor, their corpses were turned into pincushion by various Black Keys impaled through them from many different angles.

"Sweet dream." Without batting an eyelash at the dead bodies, he kept walking down the corridor toward the place where the gunshot sound came from, his hands were in the trousers' pockets, Primy on his left shoulder while his feet felt like they were following the melody coming his music player.

Ah, the memory back then in Okinawa. So many lives had been wasted just like this time.

 **Dare no tame ni ikite kita no ka/ For whom have I been living all this time?**

The fighting had finally started again. It was something couldn't be stopped since Primy only appeared in his true form for a few seconds and Lobo's howl could only do so much in enforcing the fear Primy had sent earlier. If he had to compare, it was kinda like Jaian bullied Nobita and then had Suneo enforced that fear in the manga Doraemon. And speaking of manga, it was somewhat lucky that the industry hadn't fallen as far as the music industry. Sure, many of them felt like they were created by some useless no-brain mangaka while at the same time, cliche and cringe-worthy fanservices could be seen basically in more than 80% of manga and anime but still, there were still quite a number of shining gems in that bunch of trashes. Maybe he should consider sponsoring those exceptional mangaka like that Hideaki Sorachi and his pet, Amachi Hideaki. Hot damn, their Gintaman was the best manga he could find in this time.

Also, go to hell Shueisha. Goddamn greedy milking publisher...

 **Boku wa wakaranai mama dakedo/ I still don't know the answer to that question,**

Oh hey, this one was still alive! How fortunate. With little effort, he held onto the handle of one of the Black Keys and lifted the poor bastard up to his eye level.

"Where's your boss?"

The near-death pincushion struggled to form a coherent word. Come on, you cannon-fodder bastard! Ignite your Flame of Youth and fuel your motivation with it! Try your best, punch through the limit and never give up!

"...U... F... u..."

Wow, he had never cheered for his enemy yet it worked right in the first time he did it! Maybe cheerleader could be another...

Okay, stop right there, Watarimono Yuuto, he told himself. He nearly wanted to vomit because of the horrendous image that his traitorous magination had sent to him.

"Foufou!"

Thank you, Primy. Such a caring friend you was.

"... F... f... fu... fuc..."

A Black Keys suddenly appeared and impaled the bloody bastard from throat to the back of his head, silencing him before the word could fully form

"Sorry, not the answer I want to hear." He casually threw the corpse to the side and continued onward, not forgetting to clean the little blood that managed to get onto his blazer. Such filthy.

 **Dareka no tame ikiru hito nado/ but I do know that it's impossible for me to get close**

*CRASH!*

Before he could go more than three steps, something crashed through a wall before flying through the window and fell right into the plot of land that he used to grow cactus. Now that was unexpected.

"Senpai!" the Demi-Servant of Shield stepped out from the hole on the wall. Ah, so she was the reason for that. Reminded him about the time she had accidentally broken through a wall in his house due to carelessness. Back then he hadn't not been sure if he should have a deadpanned expression or just laughing in amusement. At least in this case, he could easily choose the later. "Are you okay?"

"You seem lively." he chuckled mirthfully "And yes, I am okay. No need to be worry about that."

The relief could be seen on the face of the pinkish hair girl after hearing what he had said. However, it was briefly changed into a frown before her face returned to the usual expression. Hm...

"Something's wrong?" his left eyebrows rose a little bit

"Huh? Um... No... Nothing at all, senpai." The host of Galahad shook her head a little too fast and it only showed her discomfort much clearer. Oh well, if she didn't want to tell then he wouldn't push it.

 **Boku wa chikaku narenu/ to someone who lives for somebody else.**

Hmm, he wondered where Musashi was now. With that thought in his mind, he continued walking down the corridor with Mash followed closely behind.

(Chapter end)

* * *

 **Author's note: I know this is a short update for such a long wait and I am truly sorry about that. My real life has been harsh on me lately and like it or not, I will have to put it as my first priority instead of updating my fics. The good news is that the next update will come soon, given that my semester examination has finally end and I will have 2 free days to write before the new semester can turn me into its chewing toy.**

 **Also, to answer the concern about the age gap between Yuuto and Miyuki as well as Mayumi, I am very well-aware of the problem it might cause but I still choose them (well, Mayumi is the choice made by a winner of my question in a previous chapter) but no worry, I have plans to prevents that, not to mention it is not the largest age gap in the harem** **∠( ᐛ 」∠)＿ After all, there is a reason why the song Izu no Odoriko has a very important role in my this fic (If anyone do a little research about it, I believe they will have a clue why). And I will repeat, the harem won't be changed anymore as it is already finalized and their 'bond moments' are already planned and considering. So for the last time, if any of you drop this fic because of the pairings/harem, thank you very much for following this fic to this point and I hope I can meet you insome other fics in the future.**

 **Finally, the poll is closed now. Thank you very much for you taking your time to vote. The result will serve as a great preference for me.**

 **Well, that's all for this time. Please read and review!**


	12. Chapter 11

_**Journal Entry January 2nd, 2093**_

 _Humanity... I can feel it slowly trying to slip away from my grasp._

 _I can hear a voice whispering to me... Telling me to look with the bigger-picture perspective instead of my perspective... Telling me to throw away the 'Me'... Telling me to morph the world whatever I want... Urging me to_ _become something far above human..._

 _I wonder... Is this what she had warned me before I departed from the Akashic Record? The 'backlash' that sooner or later I will have to meet for bringing all five True Magics to the World?_

 _And here I thought I could get away with it after solving the mess Miss Blue left behind after pulling that stunt to revive her boyfriend for Gaia and Alaya..._

* * *

 **Chapter 11**

"Have you reached his place, Violet-chan?"

 ** _"Yes I have, Alcatraz-sama."_**

"Very good. From now on, he will be your new master. Serve him well, follow every single one of his command and give him everything you have and know"

 ** _"Yes sir."_**

"And one more thing: Be careful. Do not let the sacrifice of the one who freed you from Chaldea go to waste."

 ** _"... Yes sir."_**

And with that, the line went dead as the speaker chuckled before putting his phone away.

"Now... let's not be late for the climax of this event."

* * *

Watanabe Mari was a student of the First High. But more importantly, she was a swordwoman. And she could see whether a person practiced the art of sword or not based on the aura, the movement, the posture, the hands, how eyes moved and saw and how fast the reaction was.

The first time the Chief of the Public Moral Committee had laid her eyes on Miyamoto Musashi, the assistant of the school's gardener, Watarimono Yuuto, she had immediately known the cheerful and lively pinkish hair young woman was a fellow swordwoman. And probably a skillful one, if her assumption was correct. And since it was only an assumption, the female Watanabe wouldn't feel surprised if her assumption was wrong.

But this time, it was different, for Mari had never expected to see that the gap between her assumption and the reality was so large like this

"...N... no... no way..." muttered one of the terrorists shakily, his face was pale like a sheet.

"How... how could that bitch do that?!" came a shout from another terrorists, his gun was on the verse of falling to the ground due his shaking hands.

Miyamoto Musashi... she had blocked every single bullet coming to her just by spinning the katana in front of her like a shield! And just by pure skill without using any magic since the cast jamming of the terrorist was still in effect! Such a feat that required skills beyond what a normal human or even a swordmaster could gain!

"A samurai usually has two swords: a katana and wakizashi." the female samurai said dryly as she drew another sword with her left hand while the katana in her right hand rested against her shoulder "Having two blades in your belt means you are a fully fledged warrior and ready to protect others..."

Musashi's posture relaxed slightly as she pointed at the terrorists with the blade in her right hand

"... Yet all of you... Since when did you drop your swords... throw away that pride to attack and kill other?"

And that moment, Mari blinked.

It was just a blink and not even 0.5 passed in that blink...

"And this... is what you get for throwing it away"

... Yet it was all it took for Musashi to disappeared from her spot and reappeared right behind the group of terrorists, who quickly dropped down to the floor like puppets cut off from their strings, agonizing moan came out from their mouth as cut appeared on their arms and legs.

"How... " said Sakurai-sensei in disbelief as she checked the condition of the terrorists "How did you cut all of their tendons so fast like that?!"

With a small flick, little blood managed to get on the two katana was removed as Musashi put one of it back to a scabbard

"Skill and practice." Ignoring a clearly unconvinced Sakurai-sensei, Musashi just shrugged before indicating toward a small group of first year's 'Blooms'. "And I'm surprised with how accurate Yuuto-sama is when he talked about some of the 'Blooms'. All bark and no bite. Just something happened outside books and boom! They turned into a bunch of civilians that couldn't even defend themselves."

'sama'? This was the first time Mari heard Musashi referred to gardener with that suffix. What kind of relationship between them, she wondered.

"They are still students and inexperienced, Miyamoto-san." defended Sakurai-sensei as her voice hardened "Beside, it is wrong to judge all students by a few you met."

"Just state what I have seen and heard. Heck, that injured 'Weed' student there at least has enough courage to stand up and try to fight while those three could only cower in fear" Musashi wasn't fazed in the slightest. "And to be fair, I have never said _all_ the Blooms are like that. It is your assumption that I judged them."

With another shrugg, Musashi continued walking toward the library direction while completely unawared of the admiring look coming from Mari as Sakurai-sensei quickly followed the swordwoman after letting out an irritating huff.

* * *

Fear.

It was something that Tatsuya had been deprived of. His own death could not induce such emotion into his mind. Not even The Lucifer's Hammer could force his mind to acknowledge fear. Ever since the day his training as a living weapon had been started, the only thing that could make such emotion took hold onto him was the scenario of losing Miyuki and it wasn't even the fear for him own being.

But in that invasion, for the first time in his life, Tatsuya had felt fear for _himself._

If the 'Dead Apostle Ancestor'he had met when he had tried to get back to Miyuki haunted him for her unexplained origin and abilities even with his Elemental Sight as well as her hanging threat toward his little sister, the howl of the demon wolf was on a whole new level. For the first time, not a single muscle of his body had managed to move while his mind had screamed at him to run away instead of trying to save Miyuki. Even though his love for his sister had soon swatted away that fear and his body had finally followed his order, that fear still lingered in a corner of his memory, as if to remind him how just for a few seconds, his traitorous mind had put himself before his little sister's well-being.

After the invasion, he had secretly hoped that he would never have to hear that howl again or worse, see the source of that howl. But now, it was clear that whatever God out there had thought otherwise.

In the middle of the school's courtyard littered with disfigured dead bodies and burning vehicles, the Nightmare of The Great Asian Union stood proudly. About 3 meters in length while easily shadowed a fully growth adult with its height, the demon was oozing such hatred that felt like it was trying to suffocate everything around it white its black and blue flames were following every footstep of it.

But its **headless** rider, which had never been mentioned in reports or from those insane witnesses, was the most bizarre thing Tatsuya had ever seen. Yet at the same time, he was curious about it. Was it real? Or was it just an illusion? And if it was real, was it even a living being? But the moment he had set his Elemental Sight upon the wolf and its rider in an attempt to find out more about them, the only result he had received was the unbearable pain that felt like lava being directly poured into his skull through his eye sockets.

"Hey Tatsuya! Do you think that bastard told the truth? And who do you think jammed all the phone and radio signal if not the terrorists?" Leo's voice snapped the black hair teen out of his thought. The jamming was the reason why they couldn't contact the police or in Tatsuya's case, contact 101 the Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion to alert them about the presence of the Demon Wolf of Okinawa.

"He didn't lie, that I am certain. They need the communication to keep track with each other, thus there's no reason to jam even own their signal and frequencies." Tatsuya shook his head slightly as his group continued to move. Since Tatsuya could see that there was no hostile presence in this direction, the group could go much faster to the library "But who jammed the signal and for what reason, I do not know. ..."

Suddenly, Miyuki stopped dead in her track right before their little group could reach the end of the corridor. The frown gradually made it way to Tatsuya's face as he saw Miyuki shakily raised her right hand to her mouth.

"What's wrong, Miyuki-chan?" the worry was evident in Tatsuya as Erika came closer in an attempt to shake her friend out of her stupor.

"Miyuki-chan!" said Erika as she put a hand on Miyuki's shoulder "What are y..."

However, she didn't expect Miyuki to ran off toward another direction, her brother quickly followed behind after a half second of shock. This prompted her and Leo to chase after the Shiba siblings. As the two tried to catch up with their friends, Erika could gradually hear the distant soothing sound of music.

 ** _Yume no you na izu no omoide/ Such are my memories of Izu, as unreal as a dream._**

 ** _Osanai no wa boku datta/ It turned out that I was the one who was the child,_**

When Erika and Leo finally reached the Shiba siblings, the scene in front of them nearly made them throw up. Blood splashed nearly everywhere in the corridors. Dead bodies of terrorists laid around, some were pinned into the wall. All the corpses were brutally impaled with swords, making them no better than mere pincushions made from human flesh, while few other were mutilated beyond recognition. All the fresh signs showed that this slaughter had just happened not too long ago.

"Wh... what in the world..." Leo looked a little bit green as he tried to hold down the urge to discard his lunch through his mouth "... Who did this... this... "

"Whoever do it, it seems that person is not an ally of the terrorists." said Tatsuya as he inspected a sword, which he pulled out from a random corpse. The sword was about one meter and extremely short hilts, looking more likely to be used to thrust than slash at the opponent. However, its weight was one kilo and it was too thick while oddly-balanced, feeling heavier towards the tip, to use as melee weapons in general. What surprised the black hair young man even more was its material, which was something he had never known before and could only describe with the word 'alien'.

But more importantly, this thing... it had no Eidos!

Tatsuya couldn't even believe it. Everything to prove its existence was real, the weight in his hands, the cold feeling of its material, the damage it could cause... They were all here, right in front of his eyes, yet what Elemental Sight showed him in the Information Dimension told another story. Putting his right palm on the blade, Tatsuya tried to decomposed it with Mist Dispersion and the result had proved that his Elemental Sight wasn't wrong. The blade was still in his hand without even a single scratch, not because there was something wrong with his magic but because there was no Eidos for the magic to target in the first place!

It was a well-known knowledge that anything with a physical body would have their Eidos imprinted in the Information Dimension yet here it was, this sword and probably its friends had defied every rule and knowledge of Eidos and Information Dimension! Just what exactly was this thing?

 ** _Sayonara mo tsutaerarezu ni/ and time is simply passing by_**

 ** _Toki ga tada sugiteku/ while I couldn't even say goodbye._**

Snapping out of her shock, Miyuki continued walking toward the room where the music was coming from, thus signalling her brother to stand up and followed her closely. The moment she reached her hand toward the doorknobs, voices could be heard along side the music

"Is she okay, senpai?" it was the female voice belonged to the girl named Mash Kyrielight.

"Terrified... and currently out-cold due to the stress as well as blood loss. " the pleasant voice of the gardener made Miyuki let out a quiet gasp. "Nearly being raped by two terrorists surely is not a pleasant experience."

"Can you save her?"

"Piece of cake. And instead of eavesdropping, could you four lads out there just come in here? I won't bite."

Glancing at his friends for a second, Tatsuya cautiously stepped in front of Miyuki to shield her in case something happened, his Trident was drawn before turning the doorknobs and let the scene greet his group. Two terrorists were in their respective pools made from their own blood, each had three swords impaled through their heart, throat and skull. On the other side was Watarimono Yuuto who was holding an injured second year students in his arms bridal style. Between the two sides was Mash. The clothes he had seen in the noon were replaced with a set of short armor dress while a strange giant shield was raised toward Tatsuya, her eyes changed from the eyes of a kind girl into the eyes that was usually seen in a warrior or more precisely, a protector.

"Fou! Fou! Fou!"

And let's not forget the cute fluffy little white furball, who was standing on four next to the shield holding girl while doing its best to intimidate the four teen. If it had been a normal situation, both Miyuki and Erika would have squealed at the adorable attempt while even Tatsuya would have chuckled at how Primy's tail was (angrily?) wagging around.

"Relax, Mash. No need to so tense like that."

"But senpai..."

"I doubt they are the rats that bastart told us." commented the gardener casually before indication his head toward Tatsuya who was pointing his Trident at him "And would you kindly stop using that Mystic Eye on me as well as Mash, please? While my assumption about it might be wrong, it still makes me feel like you're undressing me and that is _reeeeaaaallllyyy_ creepy."

Despite a brief moment of shock due to how Yuuto knew about the existence of Elemental Sight as well as the unfamiliar 'Mystic Eye' phrase, the CAD in Tatsuya's hand kept pointing at the gardener's back as Yuuto gently laid the injured student on a long table.

"What. Are. You?" asked Tatsuya slowly as he emphasized every word

"Onii-san!" cried Miyuki but Tatsuya just ignored her as he continued to press forward. Behind him, both Erika and Leo who had the expression of confusion marched on their face

"My eyes only saw her presence in the room before we opened the door, there is none of you two and your pet. And here you are..." Tatsuya's head nodded toward the injured girl as Miyuki slowly realized what her brother was implying "... I ask again. What. Are. You?"

"In a sense, I am human." Yuuto seemed like he wasn't fazed in the slightest as the pleasant tone didn't change in a slightest, his right hand was digging through his trousers pocket "And while I more or less understand what you are implying..."

The gardener's eyebrow suddenly raised up a little bit as he checked the student's pulse before an amusing look seeped into his eyes.

"... What make you think I would answer?"

The moment his hand was out of his pocket, an audible gasp could be heard from Miyuki the moment her eyes saw what was between his fingers while the frown on Tatsuya's face deepened as theories started forming in his mind. Did he use some kindmagic to hide his Eidos or at least its imprint in the Information Dimension? Was there even anything that could do that?

"Here is your second life. Treasure it." Bright blue lights started emitting from the pentagram sapphire as Yuuto put his palm on the student's chest. After a few seconds when the light finally died down, the group of students watched in marvel as every wounds had been healed while the pale skin had returned to its natural color.

"Done." the gardener clasped his hands lightly before he took off his blazer and covered the unconscious girl. Miyuki could feel her eyes became blurry while her heart started beating faster as the familiar scene was playing in front of her. He was kind just how she had thought "Now, is there anything else you need? Those Blanche wankers out there won't go away by themselves."

Almost instantly, Miyuki stepped forward as the small velvet appeared was taken out before any questions could come from from Tatsuya

"Savi... I mean, Watari-san..." she shyly presented the velvet box to the young man in front of her "... Is... this..."

The sound of phone ringing immediately interrupted what she tried to say as Yuuto raised his hand to stop her and took out his phone.

"Hello? Oh hey, Van-Fem." the four students quickly took out their phones only to see that the signal was still jammed. How could the gardener's phone still work while their couldn't?! Unless... "What? Hmm...And?... Hell no! You still owe me for cleaning your mess back in the fast food chain!..."

... Regardless, Yuuto's phone was their chance to call reinforcement from police while in Tatsuya's case, his special force.

"... Fine. I will look into it, you bloody lazy vampire." growled the gardener in annoyance before turning back to Miyuki "Okay, now where were..."

"Why is your phone still functional?" Once again, the conversion was cut off, though this time was by Tatsuya

"Pardon?"

"The phone signal has been jammed since the start of the attack, yet you just received a phone call." a look of understanding dawned on the gardener's face "Unless you are the one..."

"... who jammed it? Yep, the jamming is my doing or more precisely, my Bounded Field's doing." despite Tatsuya's intimidating expression, the pleasantness never disappeared in his voice as he playfully wagged his right index finger. Of course, the phrase 'Bounded Field' hadn't escaped Tatsuya as he filed it away in his mind "Can't have those Blanche wankers called for help, can I? No worry, the jamming will stop when I'm done with these wankers."

"But we need to call for help!" cried Leo "They are terrorists and we are just students! We don't have..."

The pointy look Yuuto shot at the brown hair male student instantly made him clamp his lips closed before he could finish whatever he was saying and gulped loudly. The pleasantness in his eyes disappeared as Miyuki shuddered due to the sudden appearance of the cold aura that started emitting from the gardener. It was much more terrifying than the time the school's sound system had been hijacked by the Alliance

"Answer me, you useless wanker." it was clear that Leo was using all of his will so that he wouldn't let out a girly scream at the sight of a _veeerrryyyy_ pissed off gardener "What. Does. This. Bloody. School. Teach. You. And. Others?"

"M-ma-magic, sir!" squealed Leo in a high-pitched tone and Erika could only pity her friend while hiding behind Tatsuya's back along with Miyuki. On the side, Primy had jumped onto the top of Mash's head and shielded her eyes from the scene with its two front paws.

"Good." Tatsuya was torn whether he should intervene with this or not since in a sense, Leo brought this to himself "So basically, you are not unarmed right?"

Leo could only nod his head for he couldn't even believe in his voice anymore.

"So tell me, Mr..." suddenly the coldness disappeared as if it had never been there in the first place, politeness and pleasantness once again took the place "... Sorry, but what's your name?"

"I-it's Sa-Saijou Leonhard, sir." A shaky answer managed to come out from Leo's throat. Was he off the hook?

"Ooohh. It's nice to meet you then, Leonhard-san." the gardener shook Leo's hand in a friendly manner as Leo breathed out a sigh of relief. The first year believed he just had lost a few years of his life just by standing near such terrifying... presence.

"... Um... Yes... The pleasure i... Ouch!Ouch!Ouch!Ouch!Ouch!Ouch!Ouch!Ouch!Ouch!Ouch!Ouch!Ouch! My hand! My hand!"

In just a blink of eyes, the friendly handshake changed into a bone-crushing one, thus making Leo let out a chain of painful yelps as the aura came back full force

"So tell me, Mr. Saijou Leonhard." No matter how much he tried, the gardener's grip left no chance for Leo to escape and Leo could tell a few more years of his life would be taken away if he had to endure it for the next minute! "What exactly don't you and other student have? Weapon? Every single one of you students already posesses a dangerous tool that could easily cut off one's head..."

Somebody!

"... Number? The bulk of the terrorists is already annihilated. Hell, you can even crush them by sheer number if, and only if, you're willing to sacrifice..."

Anybody!

"... Or you mean experience? Then what are the instructors, the second and third year students in your eyes? Civilian? Chopped liver?..."

Please save his soul and this Saijou Leonhard would worship that person until the rest of his life!

And apperantly, whatever God out there had heard Leo's desperate plead as the door of the room suddenly opened

"They're here!" Mash quickly sprang into action and raised her shield up, blocking all the incoming bullets shot by three terrorists standing at the door. Holding the shield at her chest level, Mash used it as a battering ram and knocked the terrorists out cold by running into the three shockeded terrorists.

"Dear oh dear..." The moment the grip on his hand loosened, Leo immediately hid behind Erika's back with such a speed that Erika wasn't sure if Acceleration could even keep up with.

"Almost forgot about these bastards." the gardener fixed his sky blue tie a little bit before turning to the group of students or more precisely, Miyuki "Sorry Shiba-san, your question will have to wait for a while. Let's go Mash. Time to catch those rats."

(Chapter end)

* * *

 **Author's... rant: This chapter came much later than I expected. Anyway, this arc has become much longer than I had anticipated** **_(：3 」∠ )_** **. To be honest, I'm still not entirely satisfied with a few minor details here and there in this chapter but since my current writing skill is still lacking, this will have to do for now until I can revise them. Anyway, I need to address about one thing about Tatsuya getting no love in this fic which had been raised in a review by Bisaster but I kinda forgot ahahaha... ε=┌(;･_･)┘Anyway, Tatsuya is not the main character so of course there will be a lack of his presence. Now looking back, while I certainly don't hate Tatsuya, at the same time I can't like him no matter how much I WANT to like him, which is also a minor reason why I create an OC instead of outrightly using Tatsuya ( and to some extend, Gudao) when the idea for this fic first came to my mind. His character does not allow him to create utter chaos and madness while his skewed emotions along with his status as a living weapon for the Yotsuba only make it worse (the anime is even WORSE since basically Tatsuya is turned into a bloody tin can!). Beside, my main writing theme is not suitable for main characters like Tatsuya anyway.**

 **Heck, maybe, and I mean just may be, I will try to do a crossover between Gintama and Mahouka where Gin and Tsukuyo adopted Tatsuya and taught him to bullshit everything and troll everyone around him until no one dare to oppose the LORD Hideaki Sorachi! Muwahahahahahaha!** **"ψ(｀∇´)ψ**

 **And speaking about Mahouka's author, another I'm somewhat annoyed about that Tsumoto Sato was how he explained magic or more precisely, Tatsuya's magic. He threw a lot of knowledge, logic, reason mumble jumble to explain how Tatsuya could create and achieve such power and feats while I only need one sentence to explain and many of you will agree with me *inhale***

 **"BECAUSE HE IS SHIBA TATSUYA AND HE IS AWESOME!".**

 **Done. Yep, only that.**

 **Anyway, that's all for now. I will see you guys in the next update and please, read and review!**

 **Oh, and Happy (soon) Lunar New Year!**


	13. Interlude 1

**Interlude 1:**

"... Run... Kureha-chan... Please... Just... leave... me..."

The owner of the bloody mechanical hand tried to push away a black hair 8-year-old girl away as her weak voice only made the plead even more heart-breaking. She was well aware this was the end of her, for her body had refused to listen to her order.

"No! Please get up, mommy! We have to go!" the child kept trying to make the blond woman stand up as tears kept streaming down from her brown eyes "You promised me that I won't be alone anymore!"

A sad smile graced the lips of the blond woman. Her daughter in all but blood... She was so like her father... And to hear the little Kureha call her 'mommy', it felt like happiness materialized in her soul

"Yes, you won't... You will find... your friends... and precious people... to protect..." No matter how much she tried, she couldn't stop tears from escaping her eyes "... It's just... I can't... be with you... anymore..."

"No! Please stay with me, mommy!" despite losing all her feeling, somehow the woman could still feel the small hands tried to get her sit up, the front of her bloody shirt now was also stained with tears "I already lost daddy! I don't want to lose you!"

Using all of her remaining strength, she brought the right mechanical hand up and pat Kureha's head. Even though the cold feeling of metal was the first thing the black hair girl felt, it didn't prevent Kureha from feeling the soothing and warm feeling of love and adoration

"... Kureha-chan... Please... no matter what... you... must live..." the woman caressed Kureha's cheek lovingly "... And... don't... worry... Kureha-chan... for we... your daddy... and I... will always... watch... over... you..."

It was time, she could feel it as her hand slowly dropped down.

"Mommy?"

The woman could see such beautiful light coming from above her.

"Mommy! Please open your eyes! Please don't sleep now! We have to go!"

She could see Kureha's father extended a hand toward her and held it tight before she was pulled toward the sky.

"No! Nó No! This isn't true! Please, mommy! Please, don't die!"

At the very least, her wish to always stay by his side even in death was fullfilled...

"Moooooommmmmmyyyyyy!"

The hysterical and heart-breaking wail of Kureha continued to get louder as her head fell onto her 'true' mother's chest. Pain and sorrow gradually seeped into her eyes while her little frame shook with every of her cry.

For she was now alone.

Alone in this world.

Alone.

"There you are, Kureha-chan." the moment the familiar female voice reached little Kureha-chan's ears, she slowly turned to its owner. Just by looking, one could easily tell the long silky black hair, the lovely face and the slender frame of Kureha were directly inherited from this beautful lady.

"Let's go home, my daughter." said the woman as the man in butler suit next to her stood silently with an indifferent expression on his face. "Your uncle and I are worried about you."

Immediately, the pain and sorrow in Kureha's eyes disappeared as something else quickly took the place. Something that all children shouldn't have.

Anger. Loathing. **Hatred**.

"You...Everything happened... was because of you." Kureha's little hands were shaking as she tried to speak as clear as possible "You... have never loved... daddy... in the first place, right?... You... slept with uncle... behind daddy's back... Even when daddy... forgave your affair with uncle... you keep doing it... "

"Kureha-chan." the woman's voice hardened but the little girl just ignored it

"... You only used daddy... for what daddy had... And then... you killed daddy... after... you get what... you needed..." Ignoring the feeling of Psion and Pushion trying to suffocating her, little Kureha continued "... All... you care... are your uncle... and your damned clan..."

"Kureha-sama!" the old man's strict voice didn't faze the little girl in a slightest "You will not speak to your mother in that manner!"

"She is not my mother! And I am just a person to further bring your despicable clan to greatness!" the tears finally stopped flowing as everything around Kureha became red in the little girl's eyes "My only true mother was miss Violet! And you... your clan... killed her..."

"Hayama, stop wasting time." A hint of coldness could be heard in the woman's tone "Grab her and let's go home. Onii-sama is waiting."

"At once, Mistress."

No.

She would never go with them!

And that moment, everything around tthe little became white.

* * *

"Huh?"

It was the first thing little Kureha managed to say the moment she found herself standing/ floating in what looked like a blacken sky. Just... what was this place?

"Hello, little child."

The strange grandfatherly voice nearly made Kureha jumped as she turned around.

"No need to be worried like that." The old man in black clothes raised his hand slightly with an amused smile as Kureha shakily pointed her CAD at him. Despite his calm and old-yet-not-old demeanor, there was something... inhuman about this old man that the little girl couldn't help but feel a chill ran through her spine.

"Who... who are you?" it took some effort but Kureha managed to make her voice sound calm, which brought a hint of amusement to the old man's eyes.

"My name is **Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg,** though Zelretch is enough." the old man named Zelretch gave her a rather ridiculous yet sincere bow "It's a pleasure to meet you, **Watarimono Kureha**."

Instead of dropping down, the CAD's aim was raised from Zelretch's chest to his face

"How do you know my name?" Zelretch's chuckle was proof that Kureha's attempt to intimidate the old man didn't work at all "And where is this place?"

"I know everyone, Kureha-chan. And in a sense, you can say I am an... acquaintance of your father." the grandfatherly tone eased her a little bit as she lowered her CAD a little bit "About this place... let's just call it..."

Kureha nearly wanted to roll her eyes at the dramatic pause Zelretch was doing.

"... a realm between consciousness and unconscious. Any more 'specific' explanation and your head might explode." Zelretch chuckled at Kureha's annoyed expression "The only thing you need to know is that you're safe in here, for those two will never be able to reach here."

So this old man Zelretch had saved her, Kureha wondered. But why...

"Tell me, Kureha-chan." Kureha-chan's train of thought was stopped by the old man "Do you want to meet your father and your 'true' mother again?"

(Interlude 1 end)

* * *

 **Author's note: The final main OC finally made her appearance! Also, Kureha (** **紅葉** **) in Japanese means 'Autumn Leaves'. Anyway, this is a small gift/ teaser for the special Lunar New Year update. A little depressing for such a happy time but necessary for the plot as well as my insanity.** **(｡•̀ᴗ-)✧**

 **Happy Lunar New Year!** **(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧**

 **P/s: Who can guess where I get the name Kureha from will receive a special gift, which is to decide which 2 girls (except Maya) will get their 'bond moments' first. The clue is 'Yoshinori Abe'.**


	14. Chapter 12

**_"The beginning First changed everything"_**

 _The First Magic. The 'Denial of Nothingness'. The ability to create things out of nothing. Technically, it indeed changes 'everything' by defying every law of nature and forces Gaia to acknowledge things created by the First as something 'natural' despite its inconsistency._

 _But is it all the First can do? After all, one can argue that it is no more than just an 'upgrade' version of Gradation Air. Therefore, giving it the title 'First' for it may be a little bit... exaggerating and assuming the title given to it due to being the first Magic that was created or known to humanity sound rather... unconvincing._

 _And the answer is yes. There is one more thing that the First can do._

 _It can create 'perfection', the thing that can only exist in concept and is not allowed to exist in the natural world. Hell, even 'perfection' is a concept itself, thus calling this ability as 'turning a concept/ideal/imagination into reality' is not far-fetch. Even though this ability is somewhat limited and maybe even 'flawed' due to the limitation of user's mind as well as the user's definition of 'perfection', it doesn't make it any less fascinating and daunting._

 _Just imagine._

 _A butter knife that can cut everything._

 _A pencil that can draw anything in your mind perfectly without any difference, from the blurriest line to the most complex shade of colour.._

 _A rock when thrown that can evade any obstacles between it and the target._

 _A pair of shoes that allows even non-magical people to fly freely like bird._

 _A Black Key that can pierce through anything._

 _Runes that can_ _infinitely_ _provide energy to themselves._

 _A Bounded Field that let you manipulate everything inside it._

 _A wooden box that can kill any living beings dare to touch it._

 _A prana-saving Marble Reality that even Gaia can't break down._

 _A hose that can shoot gigantic holy beam and destroy everything in its path._

 _Or maybe a wheel of cheese that can defeat a Heroic Spirit..._

 _... Huh. For some unknown reasons, I suddenly have an urge to to summon the Queen of Connacht and let the Queen of the Land of Shadows throw cheese at her._

 _Even stranger, where the bloody hell did that thought even come from anyway?_

* * *

 **Chapter 12**

For the first time in his life, Tatsuya could feel frustration. Not even the time he had hit thick walls when he had tried to find a way to fly with modern magic or the difficulties when the first time when he had tried to make the Loop Cast realities, for all they could give him were just mere annoyance. But this time, he could feel the frustration was crawling in the back of his mind now.

And the cause of it?

"Is it necessary to kill all of those terrorists?" the voice seemed bewildered as it repeated Miyuki's question "Yes and no"

The gardener who was leading their group toward the library now. No matter how hard he forced his Elemental Sight as well as his observation and deduction skill to work, he could only got almost next to nothing from the gardener. The... 'pulse' (for the lack of better words Tatsuya could think of) that the older Shiba could barely catch from the gardener could only serve as the sign showing that he had 'cast' something. Other than that, no Eidos, no sequence! Heck, not even psion or pushion, one of the very basic requirements to cast both ancient magic and modern magic!

Just what kind of magic has Watarimono Yuuto been using?!

"What do you mean, senpai/Watari-san?" asked Mash and Miyuki at the same time before Miyuki shot a strange calculating look at the shield-wielding girl before her gaze turned back to the young man in suit.

"No because in the flow of life, every live has their own worth, thus making each live precious in its own unique way. Moreover, it's always a pity to see a life diminish before it could reach its full potential or ultimate destination."

The gardener's finger pressed onto his strange music player before music continued to play. Was it why he had advised her to 'live to the fullest' back then?

"Yes because... Hmm, too many reasons so I will just list the main ones..." the gardener's index finger moved around a little bit as his face adopted a thoughtful look "... First, they attacked me with intend to kill so it's courtesy to repay them in kind. Besides, most of them were cannon-fodder and I doubt they held any important information. Therefore, you can consider that I did a service for the government by 'reducing criminal' and 'lessen the pressure on the prison'."

The moment Tatsuya's Elemental Sight caught the sight of some terrorists in a closed room, the finger snapping sound of the gardener reached his ear and said terrorists were stabbed to death, possibly by the gardener's otherworldly swords, and fell like puppet with their strings cut. Just how did he do that, wondered Tatsuya. Did he have something similar to his own Elemental Sight? Or maybe this was another effect of this 'Bounded Field'?

"Secondly, most of these wankers forfeit their right to live the moment they chose to become terrorists and 'sacrifice' bystander for their bloody goal." despite the gardener's uncaring shrug, the 'sacrifice' word was spat out venomously "Bloody hell, some like those two back in the equipment room are even worse than trashes..."

As Yuuto's right fingers move slightly following the strange ear-catching sound of the song, a dark look suddenly made its way into the gardener's eyes

 **"... unless any of you lot here have sympathy for rapists?"**

Five shakes of head, which especially fierce in the case of Mash, Miyuki and Erika, were enough to make the dark look disappeared as if it had never existed in the first place.

"Good. And lastly but most importantly..."

However, they never expected the gardener to raise his voice up quite a few decibels as the pleasantness was replaced with annoyance as his mood seemed like turning 180 degrees.

"... it's because I'm pissed!" The gardener fished out his phone from the trousers pocket and started texting while his rant kept running "Out of nowhere, those terrorists suddenly barged in, gun-blazing and ruined my garden with their bloody 'entry'! Do you know how much time and money I put in the garden?! Just the money for the tulips are enough to feed all of you bloody freshmen for the whole year! And those tulips ladies were very demanding if you wish to see them bloom in their most beautiful form!"

Ignoring the incredulous looks coming from the group of younger teen, the gardener put away his phone with a sigh before the rien pipe returned to between his lips, his pace became quicker, albeit slightly.

 **Oh well honor for all, oh the big and the small**

 **The taller they stand, the harder they fall**

"You seem calm despite the chaotic situation, Watari-san." noted Erika

"And why shouldn't I be calm?" the volume was increased a little bit that one could easily hear it in the radius of 10 meter , which made Tatsuya wondered whether the gardener deliberately did that to attract more terrorists toward him to kill or not. "Unless EA suddenly declare that they will never practice their microtransaction policy anymore, there is no reason to panic."

The stop caused by the gardener's confusing comment only last momentarily as another question was fired at him

"What are you going to do with Mibu Sayaka Kamono Kinoe , Sa- I mean, Watari-san?" the question from Miyuki returned Tatsuya back to another matter. According to the information the gardener 'gained' from the two rapists, the two students Mibu Sayaka and Kamono Kinoe were the insiders that had helped the terrorists attack the school as distraction, thus allowing Mibu to infiltrate the library and get her hand on the researches. Quite a plan Blanche had created, Tatsuya must admitted.

 **"** **Love is a distant aroma at best**

 **A withering smile that's stuck deep in your vest** **"**

But the answer the group of students received was the lyrics of the playing song as the gardener sang along the lines

"Senpai!/Watari-san!" the cry of Mash and Miyuki managed to grab Yuuto's attention once more

"Ah sorry. Kinda lost myself in the melody there. You were saying?" a sheepish chuckle escaped Yuuto's lips

"It's okay, Watari-san." Miyuki shook her head with a small smile before she repeated her question.

And this time, the answer came almost instantly

"Simple, extract information from them." shrugged the gardener "After that... Hmm. Kamono will probably be killed while Mibu-chan may have a slightly bigger chance to live."

"Why is the difference?" asked Leo who had been hiding behind Erika ever since the brown hair teen had been freed from the gardener's traumatizing 'lecture'

The group took a left turn as the Yuuto took a brief glance at the window.

"Because one, I'm a male and I like beautiful girls." Deadpanned looks made its way to the face of the group of teen or in the case of Tatsuya, a rise of his eyebrows "Two, I'm more or less acquainted with her. While it isn't enough to be considered as friend, it's enough for me to... how should I put it? Hold back? Yes, 'hold back' a little bit."

"Three, the ridiculous contradiction in her mindset regarding her grudge against this Watanabe Mari as well as signs of internal conflict she has showed in the last 2 days interest me." The frown on Tatsuya deepened the moment the name of the chief of Public Morals Committee was mentioned. "I'm interested in finding out whether it was the product of her own mind or not. Whether her road will continue a little bit more or end here, it will be decided with my findings."

'Contradiction'? What contradiction, thought Tatsuya questionably. Did the gardener know something he didn't? And he wondered this had anything to do with Haruka-sensei asking him to give Sayaka a second chance. And moreover...

"What do you mean by 'product of her own mind or not'?" asked Tatsuya cautiously "Are you implying she was brainwashed?"

"It's a possibility." came the nonchalant reply of the gardener "To find out whether..."

Before the gardener could finish whatever he was saying, he was cut off by a shout

"Drop your CAD down or you will gather these kids piece by piece!"

"Dear oh dear." mused Yuuto with an odd chuckle "It seems the terrorists are desperate."

* * *

The fighting was gradually coming to the end. After all, the surprise element as well as the panic could only do so much in giving the terrorist an edge against magicians. Any of the terrorists could realize that the table had been turned and it was clear that their defeat was guaranteed as they were being pushed back by both students and instructors. However, it also made them become more desperate and suicidal. And Saegusa Mayumi was witnessing such a case like that as her CAD was pointing directly at the group she was facing

Three terrorists, each of them held a student hostage by their collars as their eyes had a crazed look. And in their hands were pressure buttons that Mayumi knew connecting straight to the bomb vests the three students were forced to wear. Even a smallest release of the thumb and the result would be extremely catastrophic.

"Drop your CAD down or you will gather these kids piece by piece!"

The hesitation was evident in Mayumi's eyes. Even though the fatigue was catching up on her while the light-head feeling had already started creeping onto her, Mayumi already had a way to deal with the terrorists formed in her mind. However, she literally did not know how to deal with their pressure button of the bomb to save her fellow students, let alone three of it at the same time! And Mayumi refused to drop her CAD, for she knew that it was unlikely that terrorists would keep their words

"I will count to three" the terrorist in the middle growled dangerously "If you don't do as we say, we will release the buttons!"

Despite the tense moment, the threat made the image of the school gardener as well as the day he had solved the incident of the school's sound system resurface in her mind. If there had been any chance, a small smile of amusement would have made its way to her speaking about the gardener, she couldn't help but wonder just how the news of her more or less 'knew' Watarimono Yuuto could make her father become overjoyed and scared at the same time...

* * *

 ** _"Saegusa Mauymi! As your father as well as the head of the Saegusa clan, I order you: Until I give you any further instruction, DO NOT, anger that Watarimono Yuuto person at any cost and_** ** _by any mean,_** ** _try your absolute best to get on his good side!"_**

 _"Tou-san?! Why would I try to antagoni..."_

 ** _"If you somehow do that, I will publicly disown you and banish you from the clan! Every single connection between you and Saegusa Clan will be cut off and terminated and you shall be treated as an enemy of Saegusa Clan! Am I clear?!"_**

* * *

... Before the phone call between her and her father, Mayumi had only thought about the gardener as a very interesting individual with amusing quirks. But now... Just who exactly was Watarimono Yuuto? And what kind of connection between the gardener and her father as well as how powerful he was, both magically and politically, that could make her father, the Saegusa's very clan head, to act like that?

"How about I offer you a much better bargain?"

Wow, speaking of the devil, Mayumi mused as her head turned around, though her eyebrow rose a little bit after seeing Mash's armor and her gigantic shield as well as the Shiba siblings and Erika and Leo followed closely behind.

"Gentlemen." The gardener raised his fedora hat slightly, his left hand was in the pocket as his eyes held a mirthful twinkle. Mayumi must admitted Yuuto's mirthful look had quite an odd yet attractive charm that was very different from the charm of the always calm and collected Tatsuya. It felt pleasant with a hint of mischief in it, as if challenging other people to crack the puzzle named Watarimono Yuuto and guess what quirk he was going to pull. The phrase 'secret make a man look cool' and the 'count to three' stunt with the Alliance when they had gain the school sound system always made a smile creep into her face every time Mayumi thought about it...

"My offer is simple..." Primy let out a cute yawn as it made himself comfortable on the gardener's shoulder. "... You three let those lassie go, I won't stab you to dead, everyone's happy. Sound good, no?"

If the situation had allowed, a deadpanned look would have appeared on Mayumi's beautiful face. Did the gardener seriously think those desperate terrorists would accept that proposal?

"Go to hell!" screamed a terrorist, his face twisted into an ugly sneer.

See?

"Dear oh dear." With an amused shake of his head, the gardener chuckled lightly "Your loss then."

With a small movement of his left shoulder, three amethyst magic circles appeared under the terrorists' feet.

"Wha..."

And that was all the terrorists could say before all the three terrorists and the hostages **forze**.

"What in the world..." it was all Miyuki could say as all six people standing still without even a single movement nor anything that indicated they were breathing, even the trailing tears were frozen on the cheeks! As if all the six people were literally turned into living statues! And what surprised the younger Shibe even more was its similarity to her Cocytus! Just how powerful was her Savior-sama?

"Oi, come back to earth and give me a hand here." this brought the shocked group back to the reality as Tatsuya and Leo quickly approached the gardener and help him untangle the three students out of the clutch of the three terrorists and their bombvests. With a wave of his hand, a black box appeared in front of the gardener as he dumped the three bombvests inside and sealed the box closed

"Okay, good to go now." With another finger snap, the three students suddenly came to life and resumed their crying for a second until they realized they were freed

"Now what to do with these bastard..." muttered the gardener as he tapped his chin "Ah that's right! Let's see... Here... Lower a little bit... Move the head to the right... Done! So, what do you lot think?"

A collection of deadpanned looks was the first reply the gardener received before a very lady-like laugh came from Mayumi and a light chuckle came from Tatsuya

"... What are you do..." said Erika as her eyebrows started twitching as Miyuki could feel her image of her Savior-sama started crumbling a little bit

"That's obvious. I put them in the pose! Look marvelous, doesn't it?"

"I know that! I mean what exactly is that ridiculous pose?!" Tatsuya couldn't help but thought Erika had just turned into the _tsukkomi_ of a manzai comedy "And why the hell do you even waste time to do something childish like this with the current situation?!"

"You lot don't know about Kamen Rider poses?! Don't tell me you uncultured swines have never seen..." the rant was stopped abruptly as the gardener muttered darkly "Oh right, totally forgot Toei declared bankruptcy in 2062."

With a snap of his hand, a red marker appeared in the gardener's right hand as he opened the cap and started writing and drawing on the three terrorists' face, totally ignoring various kind of reactions on the faces of Mash and the group of students behind him.

"Anyway, what's wrong with having some fun? The tenser the situation is, the more you need something to make it more lively." the group of students could swear the three 'idiot' words along with various drawings on the three terrorists' face were twinkling like decorating light "Beside..."

With a small movement of his shoulder, the three terrorists were turned into a sword-pincushion and slowly yet simultaneously dropped to the floor with a loud 'thud', which was followed by a muffed explosion sound coming from the box.

"... they will die anyway so at least I should give them one last fun memory to bring to the afterworld, no?"

* * *

 **Author's note: GODDAMNIT! VIOLET EVERGARDEN TOOK AWAY SO MUCH MANLY TEAR OF MINE! I WILL DO MY BEST TO WRITE HER IN THIS FIC OR DIE TRYING!** **‧º·(˚ ˃̣̣̥⌓˂̣̣̥ )‧º·˚**

 **Bloody hell, the length of this arc has long gotten out of my control and messed my plan up to the point I basically didn't care anymore, not to mention many things I had to originally was in this chapter but I had to cut it to the next chapter.** **（￣□￣；）** **On a side note, thank you Ribu for pointing out many things about Lucifer's Hammer as well as the strategic-class 'magic' Meteorite Fall and I admit, I hadn't watched Mahouka movie due to my lack of interest so I didn't know about Meteorite Fall until now. While it brought a few stumbles for my writing, it helped me revised the chapter 10 more thoroughly and let me add more details why Lucifer's Hammer was categorized as Apocalypse-Class. For who are too lazy to re-read, here are the added details**

 **+The falling speed, which only take 5 second from appearing to making impact, thus leaving no chance to counter due to the lack of time to cast something to counter (the Material Burst Tatsuya casted in Okinawa took about 10 seconds to cast/explode I assume)**

 **+The flame caused by the fire blast couldn't be extinguished and burnt in 10 days straight and 'glasses' the land in various places of Okinawa (I WANT TO PLAY NEW HALO!)**

 **+The fear of the unknown which act as a final push (Maybe I should write a Bloodborne or Dark Souls crossover with Mahouka. Having Tatsuya dealt with those bosses while his 'magic' is useless against them can be fun.)**

 **Regarding** **the 'The Girl Who Summons Stars' arc** **, a poll has been put in my profile whether it should be included in this or not. Depending on the result, the Lucifer's Hammer MIGHT be 'downgraded' from Apocalypse-Class to Strategic-Class and a new Apocalypse-Class Magic might step into light! Muwahahahahaha!** **"ψ(｀∇´)ψ**

 **And about the 'concubine' (not as official harem/pairings) suggest... Hmmm... Such appealing yet annoying at the same time, that idea is.**

 **Also, anyone have experience with writing lemon? Seriously. Reeeaaaaalllllyyyy neeed some help with that now. ┐(￣ー￣)┌**

 **Finally, please read and review!**

 **P/s: Damn, I did upload the Dark Souls x Bloodborne x Mahouka crossover (o^ ^o)** **Though I have to rewrite the whole chapter one because of... reasons.**


	15. Chapter 13

_**Journal Entry January 4th, 2093**_

 _While there are similarities between the old magecraft and this 'modern magecraft (for example, Mystic Code and Casting Assistant Device), the differences in how they work still can be easily recognized. Hell, even if I hadn't done my research back in last year's October, they would have still smashed into my face with the force of a lorry running with the speed of 70 MPH. However, now that I decide to give some more thought on their differences, I can't help but chuckle at my most recent comparison as well as the irony said comparison bears._

 _The old magecraft manifests and affects directly in the physical realm and from there, the Root will 'record' the change as well as the new status after the change or in other cases, the Root will 'erase' the possibilities that can no longer happen as well as create new possibilities according to the change in the physical realm. In a sense, this concept is more or less 'similar' to the Materialism I once read in books of the two eggheads Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. To be more specific, the physical realm is the primary one that affects and decides the secondary one, which are 'mind' and 'spirit' (the Root). Meanwhile, the modern magecraft manifests in the 'Information Dimension' (a much more inferior version of the Root in my opinion) and overwrites/ modifies the Eidos of the magecraft's target through the use of 'sequence'. From there, the target will change according to its newly modified information of the Eidos. Therefore, the way the modern magecraft work bears quite an odd resemblance to the Objective Idealism, where the 'mind' and 'spirit' (the Information Dimension) is the deciding factor on how reality (the physical realm) will be._

 _Strange, isn't it? The old and more mystic magecraft follows the path of a more 'scientific' philosophy while the new and modern magecraft follows the path of an older and more 'mystic' philosophy. Even Scathach has a genuine smile of amusement after hearing my comparison..._

 _... or bastardization as she called it. That bloody woman and her goddamn haughty tongue._ (╬⓪益⓪)

 _Still, that smile... it was quite a rare sight to see and luckily, I managed to get a shot of it. I must admit, that angry mixed embarrassing expression after knowing I took a picture of her expression was kinda cute, regardless of how daunting her gaze was as well as the bloodthirsty aura her spears were emitting._

 _Perfect teasing material, muwahahahahahahaha!_

* * *

 **Chapter 13**

Inside the Special Browsing Room, Mibu Sayaka was having her own fight, but not with the students or the instructors or terrorists.

It was the fight with her own thought

"Our goal is to abolish the differential treatment brought on by magic, so why do we need the most cutting edge magical research?" wondered Sayaka aloud

 _ **' Because it can help the people. We must get our hand on it.' **_came the reply from her thought

"But how exactly will these magic help non-magical people? We have come across nothing like that?"

 _ **' There must be and it must be hidden! You must get your hand on them!'**_

Sayaka could feel a strange warm feeling coming from the pendant she had received from Hajime earlier though she ignored it.

"But how can non-magical people use it? And more importantly, will non-magical people even agree to use it?"

 _ **' Of course they will. They need it to fight for the equality! Remember how that Watanabe Mari looked down on you! The non-magical will always be looked down like that!'**_

Sayaka's face hardened the moment the name of that despicable person was mentioned. Of course. She was the prime example of how magicians looked down on people they deemed lower than them, not only just non-magical people! She must continued to search! If she couldn't find it, she would just take everything and sort them out at the HQ later...

 ** _'I'm sorry but I have to refuse, for my skills can't match yours. You should find an opponent that is worthy of your skills.'_**

Sayaka clutched her head as a sudden sharp pain shot through her head the moment her traitorous mind decided to playback the 'imagination' of someday before. There was no way that girl would act so humbly like that! Shaking her head furiously, Sayaka tried to get rid of said annoying 'imagination' before returning back to her task.

But a memory quickly came up and effectively halted her from continuing her task.

 _ **"... That's your main motivation? Are you for real? Have you ever hit your head somewhere before? Or do you have a gigantic and twisted ego that can be easily bruised. Hell, maybe you're just being unreasonably spiteful or something like that."**_

 _ **"What is that suppose to mean?"**_

 _ **"Was that too hard to understand? Okay, long version then. She turned your request to spar and your challenge down**_ _ **turned you and that event turned you into a person who hates the discrimination coming from 'Course 1' and fights for equality between the two Courses? Now, if I challenged you to have a shogi match with me and you turned me down, should I think all of you wankers studying in this school have no respect to a school staff and go on a rampage?"**_

 _ **"That isn't the same as my situation."**_

 _ **"Minus the shogi part, they're basically still the same. Don't tell me you haven't received any refusal to spar since the first day you started practicing sword? Granted, we're all**_ _ **more or less colored by our own perception but what make this time different from the others? And more importantly, did**_ _ **Watanabe-san really mean it or was it just your assumption, Mibu Sayaka?"**_

That accursed gardener and his goddamn logic, thought Sayaka angrily. Just what right did he have to question her?!

 **'... _what make this time different from the others?'_**

It was different because... because... because she was no better than those all high and mighty magician! Always looking down on people they thought lower than themselves

 _ **'... or**_ ** _was it just your assumption, Mibu Sayaka?'_**

Of course it wasn't her assumption! Hajime had pointed it out for her...

An agonizing pain suddenly shot through her head as Sayaka fell onto her knees. It took a whole minute for the pain to subside and let her mind think more clearly.

And that very moment, the image of Hajime's eyes the first time Kinoe had introduced her to Blanche resurfaced in her mind. And the waves...

 _ **' What are you waiting for?! Hurry up!'**_

The voice she had argued with a few minutes ago returned to her mind

 _'No... Perhaps Watari-san was right...'_ Sayaka thought reluctantly '... _Why has I been so angry about that in such a long like that?_ '

 _ **' It's because she looked down on you!'** _the voice repeated the same argument it had used before

 _'But why did I assume that?'_

 ** _' She said 'You are just a Weed! You are not worthy to fight me!'. That was the evidence! Don't you dare forget it!'_**

"Fancy meeting you here, Sayaka-chan. How do you do, Sayaka-chan?"

a sarcastic yet familiar voice reached her ears but she just ignored it as whatever anger started rising in her chest was snuffed out by the image of her 'imagination'

 ** _'I'm sorry but I have to refuse, for my skills can't match yours. You should find an opponent that is worthy of your skills.'_**

Was it really 'imagination'? Or was it real? But if it was real then...

"Oi, are you in there? Hello, Earth to Mibu Sayaka!"

And then Sayaka's world erupted with pain.

* * *

"Oi, are you in there? Hello, Earth to Mibu Sayaka!" the gardener said loudly in another attempt to gain the attention of the standing still girl who currently seemed like was too engrossed with her thought to notice. Since the Elemental Sight hadn't helped him much in solving the mystery named Watarimono Yuuto, combined with the situation clearly no longer in the terrorists'favor as whatever the gardener used to pinpoint and eliminate enemies had taken care of any troubles before it could happen, Tatsuya had deactivated it for a while. If only Elemental Sight had allowed him to read mind, perhaps he might have...

"Aaaaaaaagggggghhhhhhh!"

The sudden agonizing scream of Mibu Sayaka snapped him out of his thought as the girl fell onto her knees, her hands clutched her chest tightly.

"Mibu-san!" Before Mayumi could take a single step toward, a violet magic circle appeared next to the kneeling girl as a terrifying ear-piercing shriek escaped the shining magic circle, forcing the students to cover their ears

"What the hell?!" cried Leo as the gardener narrowed his eye slightly, watching black bits gradually rose up from the circle and forming its horrid humanoid body. The jaw of its twisted skull hanged limply as every move of it body created a chain bone-cracking sound. Its rotten skin glued to its rib cage like a horrid coat. Its placenta was stuck to its right hand in the shape of a giant club as crimson liquid was dripping from it, scattering the sickeningly dry, sweet metallic scent of blood into the air.

'Kuh!' grunted Tatsuya mentally as he tried to ignored the throbbing pain, which was the result of his attempt to analyze the abomination's Eidos with his Elemental Sight, pierced through his mind. Although the pain wasn't as bad as the time he had tried to 'read' the Demon Wolf of Okinawa in the schoolyard, it didn't feel any less unpleasant. However, Tatsuya still managed to obtain one information from the abomination's Eidos, even though he himself didn't believe it.

By human's standard, this abomination... was already 'dead', yet at the same time it was still 'alive'! Just how was it possible?! Moreover, unlike the Demon Wolf and its headless rider which oozed hatred, this abomination was oozing rage, madness and... sorrow?

Regardless, since he couldn't gain a proper understanding on this abomination, his Decomposition-related magics were more or less tied now while Material Burst of course was out of question. Therefore, if he and his group had to fight this monster...

"Hey, Yuuto-sama! I finish..." the appearance of Miyamoto Musashi and Sakurai Honami was announced by Musashi's cheerful voice, which soon decreased in tone the moment the pinkish hair young woman laid her eyes on the horrid beings "... Okay, now that's an ugly sight."

"Yuuto-san! Are you okay?" cried Honami as the Guardian quickly approached the gardener, much to Miyuki's subtle dismay, until the teacher noticed the monster "And what is that thi... ?!"

A scream of rage effectively cut the Guardian off as the monster leaped into the air. Feeling her battle instinct kicked in, Honami dashed forward, her CAD flared to life and a dome barrier was erected onto the group...

*CRRRRAAAAAACCCCKK!*

The moment the giant placenta club met the barrier, the impact effortlessly forced Honami onto her knees as the barrier was broken as if it was just glass while the monster only staggered back a little bit. Whatever this monster was, its sheer strength could easily surpass many kinds of weapons her barrier had ever met while the pressure of the hit felt like a whole mountain just felt onto her!

The first moment the monster regained its balance, it immediately raised its horrid club one more time. However, a flash of silver was the only warning as Musashi brandished her katana and cleanly slice off the abomination's right arms with a speed that Tatsuya wasn't sure whether Acceleration could even keep up with or not.

" **Grrraa** Aaa **aaa** gggg **hh** hhh **hh!** "

While the painful screech of the abomination was expected, the group clearly didn't anticipate to hear the painful cry of Sayaka mixed in as said girl now fell completely onto the floor, her left hand clutched what was remained of her right arm as blood was flowing freely from the grievous wound.

"Shit! That bloody abomination is connected to Sayaka!" the gardener let out a curse as Tatsuya's eyes widened after finally understanding what was happening. With another screech, a new right arm spurted out from the abomination wound as the placenta club attached back to the abomination's new arm after detaching from the old one. "Mash, Musashi! Hold that thing at bay and do not injure it for now!"

"Hai, senpai!" nodded Mash with determination as the short hair girl blocked a heavy hit with her gigantic shield before she slammed said shield into the abomination's face.

"Easier said than done!" said Musashi irritatingly as she put her katana back to its scabbard before jumping backward to dodge a vertical swing of the abomination. Using the distraction, the gardener quickly reached the girl who was bleeding to death.

"We will help!" the strength in Miyuki voice was strong as her brother followed the gardener closely, probably intending to save the girl with his Regrowth. In a split second, the magic sequence came to life as she pointed it at the monster " **Niflheim**."

The room temperature turned cold as ice gradually formed on the abomination until it was completely frozen, standing still in an intimidating pose with its club raised up high. But her victory was very short-lived.

 **"Gggrrrreeeeeaaaaaahhhhhh!"**

A furious scream was the only warning the group received as the abomination broke free from the ice with one single shake, ice fragments flew back like a hail! The hail of ice pellets and Dry Meteors shot from Mayumi only enraged the monster further as it smashed its horrid club into the floor and created a blackened crimson explosion, knocking everyone around it, minus Mash as well as Musashi and Honami, off their feet.

"How could that thing move so fast like that?!" cried Erika as she narrowly dodged a slash. Even with her Self-Acceleration, her speed was barely keeping up with the swinging speed the monster was displaying.

"Look out!" with a long jump, Leo managed to push the redhead away in time out of the way of an incoming volley of dark projectile only for one of those to hit his back "Gah!"

"Leo!"

"I'm okay!" grunted Leo as he stood up, the back of his clothes was mostly destroyed "Even my best Fortification can't withstand that thing's projectile!"

"Everyone find some cover!" a hint of desperation could be heard from Mayumi as she tried to shoot down as many projectiles a possible before she created a smokescreen with a Dry Meteor to distract the abomination long enough to dive into another cover.

"Oi Yuuto-sama!" as Miyuki was trying to cast another Niflheim to try to slow the monster down, the voice of the dodging young pinkish hair woman could be hear despite the abomination's scream in the background. "Whatever you do, you'd better do it fast now!"

* * *

"... Wa... tari-san..." said the girl weakly the moment her weakened gaze met the incoming young man, her lithe body was writhing in agony.

"Oi, focus and stay awake, Mibu Sayaka!" As the gardener skidded to his halt near Sayaka, a blue sapphire was ready in his left hand, the gardener wasted no time to apply it on the remaining stump of Sayaka's right arm. The pale blue light coming from the pentagram sapphire felt so gentle as some parts of his white shirt was stained crimson due to Sayak's blood.

'So this is that power that saved my sister and Honami-san.' thought Tatsuya in wonder as he couldn't help but marvel at the extraordinary sight of the healing in front of his eyes. Everything, from the bone, neurons, muscle to even the smallest blood veins, was restoring slowly but perfectly. According to his analyzation on Sayaka's Eidos, the gardener was reconstructing the missing arm. However, there was no sign of modifying from any outside sources in the change of girl's Eidos. If Tatsuya had to describe, it felt like as if Sayaka's Eidos was being _forced_ to follow the change of Sayaka's physical body, not the other way around!

On a side note, did that sapphire act like a CAD or a medium for the gardener to cast his healing magic? However, that theory couldn't explain how the sapphire had saved Honami a second time (if what Honami believed was true), given the gardener currently had to directly hold the sapphire in his hand to heal...

 _" **The linking Fourth conceal itself...** " _

... or perhaps the sapphire had some kind of safeguards to protect the person who possessed it? But how did it manage to keep tab on the owner to trigger the safeguard?...

 _"... **The connection between Mibu Sayaka and that ugly abomination, I deny.** "_

... Perhaps the gemstone kept taps on the owner via and heal the owner via physical body? It was the most possible hypothesis he could think of given what he had gathered so far. Still, the most important question still remained: How could the healing process _'force'_ the Eidos to change according to the physical body?

"Okay, you can go wild now, Musashi! Mash, support her!"

"Hai, senpai!/ Finally!"

The gardener's shout kicked Tatsuya out of his train of thought as he could see Sayaka now no longer writhing in pain while her arm was completely restored. However, her paleness was something couldn't be ignored. With snap of his finger, a small knife appeared in the gardener.

"Wait, Watari-san. What about the connection..."

"Already solved that..." muttered Yuuto darkly. When did he solve it, thought Tatsuya? Was it because he was too focus on this hypothesis that he had missed the gardener solving that? "... Now to solve the root of the problem..."

With a swift cut, the front of Sayaka's shirt was torn opened, revealing a bloody black triangle pendant attached to her chest as various black veins running from the pendant was visible under her pale skin.

"... Bloody parasite. Shiba, hold her down." growled the gardener and Tatsuya complied, his eyes carefully inspected the pendant as the vibe of rage, madness and sorrow coming from the pendant was enough to prove it had connection to the abomination.

"Bite" commanded the gardener curtly as Sayaka bit the offering piece of wood, which appeared out of nowhere, as hard as she could "Now, what is your cup size?"

Despite her weaken state, the sudden question still made her splutter as a bright shade of red invaded her face

"Wha... what're you even aski... Ggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

* * *

"Woah!" cried Musashi as she dodged another furious slam of the abomination, a new head just regrew from it neck to replace the old one that was cut off by a very lethal slash. "This thing is really annoying."

"This abomination is worse than cockroaches!" groaned Leo who had to retreat after his CAD was destroyed after blocking a projectile for Erika, his left arm was dislocated due to a direct hit of one of those projectiles. If he hadn't cast Siegfried, a trump card that he was still developing, right before that goddamn thing hit him, he would have lost his arm instead of just having it dislocated.

Just what the hell was this thing?! Even cutting its head off could nothing to stop it?!

"Miyuki-san!" Honami immediately jumped toward the black hair girl, her barrier was shattered once again but still enough to momentarily stagger the monster.

 **'Cocytus!'** cried Miyuki desperately in her mind as the abomination suddenly came to an abrupt stop. 1 second. 2 seconds. 3 seconds. 4 seconds...

 **"Ggggrrrrreeeeaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!"**

The abomination broke free once again even when she used her strongest spell, which should have frozen its mind and spirit!

" **GGGGgrrrreeeeeeaaaaaahhhh!"**

With an inhuman speed, Musashi dived forward to the abomination's left side, right before the monster destroyed everything in the area in front of it with multiple mad slams and slashes. Not letting the monster have a chance to recover, Musashi cleanly bisected both the monster's legs as Mash tackled the abomination to the ground, right after Mayumi distracted it with another volley of Dry Meteor.

Another terrifying scream was let out but this time, the limps didn't grow back as the abomination crawled with its left hand while its right arm swinged blindly.

"Its regeneration is no more!" exclaimed Erika in joy before she quickly dodged another volley of deadly projectiles. Even without the regeneration, the abomination was still dangerous with those explosive that it continuously flung around.

A smirk plastered on Musashi's face as she drew her second katana.

"Mash-chan! Sakurai-san! Cover for everyone! I will go in for the kill"

With a kick, Musashi leaped forward, her twin katanas danced in her hands as the swordwoman deflected every single one of the projectile. With a defiant scream, the abomination leaped forward with its left hand, its horrendous giant club swung vertically as if trying to flatten the incoming danger. However, Musashi quickly throwing her left katana at the abomination's shoulder. While it wasn't enough to cause a serious wound, it was enough to force the direction of the swinging club changed to her left as the female samurai held the second katana tightly.

 **'Fifth form'**

In just one single second, 4 lethal slashes simultaneously cut opened the abomination as well as removed its arms and head. The moment the head touched the ground, all the abomination's parts burst into blood, painting almost everything around it a sickening crimson color.

"Good kill, Musashi." said the gardener as he and Tatsuya approached the group, Sayaka, who was being given a piggyback by the gardener, was hiding her face into the gardener's back. Nevertheless, everyone could see steam was shooting out from her ears as her arms held tightly around Yuuto's neck.

"Thanks for the compliment, Yuuto-sama!" said the cheerful swordwoman as she retrieved her katana before she looked around at the chaotic after-battle scene "But do we have to take the responsibility for all of this mess?"

"Don't worry about that, Miyamoto-san." said Mayumi with a tired smile as she slowly getting up "Though making other believe what kind of thing we fought in here could be a little bit hard."

"That's a relief then." Musashi's bright smile immediately made all Leo's blood rush to his face "And Yuuto-sama, since I did a good job, will I have some..."

The shake of the gardener's head came before the female samurai could finish her question

"You already drank all the sake I have..." the pinkish hair woman fell onto her knees as a cloud of depression hung above her head "... Tomorrow is okay."

And Musashi's mood immediately returned to the normal as she literally jumped onto the gardener in joy before setting back down, much to other's surprise and amusement.

"Sayaka-san, can you stand now?" a reluctant nod was the answer the gardener needed before he dropped her back to the floor, not forgetting to give her a coat from God-know-where, much to the black hair girl's appreciation.

"Now, since the show is over..." the gardener suddenly turned to a dark corner of the room "Can our dear spectator come out here now? Or will I have to drag you out?"

This brought many alarming look to the group as Tatsuya's Elemental Sight immediately move to the corner. And the moment his Sight caught the 'spectator', Tatsuya felt his blood ran cold.

Inhuman, chaotic with an echo of bloodthirsty in it.

The same thing he got when he had tried to 'read' that Dead Apostle Ancestor!

Before his mind could make any plans or moves, it was abruptly halted by a very unfamiliar tone mixed with the clapping sound

"Bravo! Bravo!" Much to Tatsuya surprise (and relief), a short man in very old style suits with a white high top hat stepped out from the shadow. "Such a fine show! So worthy to come to witness it by my very own eyes!"

" **Caubac Alcatraz.** " said the gardener impassively "The Twenty-Seventh Dead Apostle Ancestor."

So this man was in the same league as the monster he had met in Okinawa, thought Tatsuya. Which meant this 'man' might have information of the one he needed to know. And how did the gardener knew this male Dead Apostle Ancestor? What connection did he have with them? Did the gardener have the information he needed?

And more importantly, 'Twenty-Seventh'? Just how many of these Ancestor were out there? And comparing to the 13 'Apostle' magicians, which side would have an upper hand?

"At your service." Caubac raised his hat slightly, revealing his shining bald head under the hat "It is a great pleasure to meet you face to face. Watarimono Yuuto, the **True Sorcerer** and the brother of Watarimono Keto"

'True Sorcerer?' It was the same thought that ran through the group of First High students as well as Honami the moment the unfamiliar title reached their ears

"Where the hell did that title come from?"

"From me, of course." the grin on Caubac's face gave Tatsuya an impression of a grinning fox "After all, someone at your caliber requires an appropriate title and what title is better than 'True Sorcerer'? Or perhaps you wish to be refer as 'The Sorcerer among sorcerers'?"

Musashi let out a weird noise as she failed to stiff a laugh after hearing the title

" _ **Your ability to lie and deceive, I conceal**_." Tatsuya's eyebrow rose a little bit at the strange sentence that just suddenly came out from the gardener "Now cut to the chase Alcatraz, tell me why are you here by yourself?"

"To enjoy a climax of this event, of course!" the Dead Apostle Ancestor said jovially "And more importantly, I have decided to offer you my help with your 'hunting'. An offer always has more weight when you offer it by yourself, don't you think so brother of Keto?"

The gardener's eyes narrowed, albeit only a little bit

"Be more specific. And what is your relationship with my brother? My brother had never mentioned about knowing you and neither had Merem as well as Van-Fem."

For a brief moment, Tatsuya could see a hint of twinkle in Caubac's eyes as the man let out a long loud laugh

"I am a only a close acquaintance of your brother, so of course I am not as close as Van-Fem or Merem who are you's brother's best friends. Moreover, I owe your brother quite a lot so agreeing with your brother's request to _consider_ helping you is the least I can do. And to be more specific about my offer..."

Caubac's lips morphed into a mysterious smile

"... Does the name ' **Chaldea** ' ring any bell?"

The intensity of Yuuto's piercing gaze immediately increased tenfold the moment the name 'Chaldea' reached everyone's ears as the Mash's reaction didn't escaped Tatsuya eyes. 'Chaldea'? Tatsuya had never heard such a name. Perhaps his 101 Battalion's database might hold some knowledge about this.

"... Why should I trust you? You could be just a part of 'Chaldea' or whatever names this group has." Tatsuya's frown deepened. So this 'Chaldea' had other names?

Taking off his white high top hat, the Dead Apostle Ancestor playfully waved his right hand above the hat as if he was doing a 'taking out rabbit' act before he took a package that shouldn't have been fit inside the hat it came from.

"And your brother left me this box. He said if you don't believe me, just give this box to you and you will change your mind." Alcatraz casually threw the package to Yuuto "Your brother said that only a true Watarimono knows how to open it. And no, I am not a part of this 'Chaldea'."

Effortlessly catching the package, the gardener shot a hard untrusting look at the smiling Ancestor before he tore the warping paper, revealing a wooden box with a bird-liked sigil on it. Despite numerous strange and complex locks on it, the box still held an old yet incomparable beauty that Miyuki nearly couldn't remove her eye away from it...

... or else, the black hair girl would have missed the gardener's surprise expression, which was mixed with a little bit of longing and a small hint of confusion when his gaze briefly turned to Alcatraz before returned back to the box. There was a look of wonder in his eyes as his right hand gently caressed the sigil like it held a very precious memory.

"... Why would my brother entrust you with this?"

"Your guess is as good as mine." Caubac only shook his head lightly as the Dead Apostle Ancestor took out a box cigar and put one between his lips before offering the box to gardener. "Want to have one? Heard from your brother that you could be quite a chimney when it came to smoking."

"I quit long ago." said the gardener with a shake of his head as the Dead Apostle Ancestor withdrew the box .

'So that's why he usually has that rien pipe between his lips even though he didn't smoke' thought Miyuki, Honami, Sayaka and Mayumi

With a snap of his fingers, spark ignited and Caubac lighted the cigar and took a long drag

"One think that I, you, Merem and Van-Fem all agree is your brother is very hard to understand..." a thin cloud of smoke escaped Caubac's mouth as the rien pipe appeared between the gardener's lips "Had he seen a vision where I would help you? Or maybe there were other reasons? Or did this box have a safeguard that would deliver it to you if I decided not to help you or when certain conditions were fulfilled?"

Shaking his head a little bit, Caubac shook the ash on the cigar down before he took another drag, a hint of sadness could be detected in Caubac's tone if one paid close attention

"And the only one can answer that question isn't here anymore."

"Watari-san, what is..." Whatever question Mayumi was going to ask died in his throat the moment the gardener's left hand dropped down and let the box float perfectly still in the air a few inches in front of his eyes, as if the box was on an invisible table instead of floating. Just how did the gardener do it, Tatsuya wondered. Manipulate gravity was one thing, but to the point of making the box staying perfectly still in the air like that was an entirely different matter. Even with his Loop Cast, Tatsuya doubted he could replicate such feat without putting a lot of time and effort in researching and experimenting...

"Senpai!/ Watari-san!" the surprised cry of Mash and his sister shook Tatsuya out of his muse. A bloody kinfe now was in the gardener's left hand as blood was slowly flowing out from a fresh cut in the right palm. Clearing his throat, the gardener spoke aloud as he held said palm above the box and dyed the sigil crimson with his blood, his tone was strict and firm yet still held a hint of nostalgia.

 **"** **Even if the world were full of enemies** **..."** pale emerald light emitted from the sigil as the students could swear they heard a phantom chirping sound of a bird came from the box **"...** **there always will be someone or something you must protect** **."**

*click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click* *click*

The sound of locks clicking open created a strange yet ear-catching melody as the lid of the box opened, revealing 24 smaller compartments inside said box. Each compartment was no bigger than the size of an egg. After a few seconds, the gardener pressed the top left compartment, prompting it to expand while others to shrink into nothingness. With another clicking sound, the expanded compartment opened and revealed...

"Cassette tapes?" Miyuki arched an eyebrow as the gardener took one of said tapes out after healing his bleeding palm, his face held a strange expression that none of the presented people could understand while eyes carefully inspected the tape. Who would use cassette tapes nowaday? The technology was too old and unreliable comparing to other means, thus it was completely discard in 2030. The only place where one could see this thing was the museum or maybe antique shop or in a collection.

With a snap of his finger, a portable cassette player made its appearance in the gardener's hand and the gardener gingerly injected a tape in it.

*click*

The cassette player let out a low hum as it played the tape. However, instead of sound, something totally unexpected came out from the little machine

 ** _"Mistress Minori, please move to the right a little bit. Mistress Miho, please relax for this is your happy day and no need to be so stiff like that. Mistress Aira, please stand up instead of sitting Master's laps and try to tease him."_**

From the player, holograms that looked exactly like real living people shot out and floated in the air. An old man in the butler suit stood behind a camera, his hand directed the opposite people into better position. The young woman called Minori was clad in a blue and white wedding dressed as her armpit-length wavy black hair was tied partly, thus giving her a beauty of maturity. The second young woman whose name was Miho took in a small breathe to calm herself down, her dark black eyes and mid-back length black hair gave her a traditional Japanese charming beauty despite her western red and white wedding dress. The third young woman had a small pout on her face as she carefully sat up from her position in order not to ruin her emerald and white wedding dress, her light brown wavy hair and her dark eyes gave the young woman a playful and impish aura yet didn't ruin her unique beauty in the slightest.

 ** _"And Master Keto, please take your fedora hat off. You are taking a wedding photo, not taking a photo for some trash fashion tabloid."_**

And the last person in the black suit of a groom sat on a chair in the middle of the three standing young woman. The fedora hat couldn't hide his mirthful yet sharp brown eyes as his lips had an odd smirk that Miyuki wasn't sure what exactly it meant.

And why did she feel a sense of familarity about this Keto person? Had she met him somewhere, Miyuki wondered.

 ** _"Okay okay, granddad."_** A quiet gasp nearly escaped Miyuki's lips the moment Keto spoke as he took off fedora hat. It was the voice of the strange man in suit with the cane she had met in the dream some times before! **" _Still,_ _why don't we just all stand or sit anyway? Why do I need to sit while my wives have to stand? Shouldn't I be the one who needs to stand?"_**

The word 'wives' made everyone comically dropped their jaw, minus Tatsuya who only raised his eyebrow and the gardener...

"Heh. To thing my brother would really act like this when he took his wedding picture with his three wives. Guess I should have trusted him on that."

... who just let out an amused chuckle as incredulous looks now were directed at him.

'So that man is Watari-san's older brother.' thought Tatsuya as he inspected the hologram carefully.

'Watari/Yuuto-san's brother is in a polygamous marriage?! H-ho-how...!' thought Miyuki and Honami as the younger Shiba's face held a scandalous expression mixed with embarrassment.

'Doesn't that man know polygamy is against the law?! And why would those three women even agree to that in the first place?!' was the same thought of disbelief running through the remaining people's mind.

 _ **"Because Aira proposed and we all agreed that you should be the one to sit, Keto-kun. The picture will look perfect this way, given our number."**_ said Miho's hologram softly.

 _ **"And I clearly wasn't in that 'We'."**_ the gardener's brother let out a grumble

 _ **"Aw, just drop that 'equality' of yours. We all know how you do and will always treat us."**_ said Aira before an impish glint made its way to her eyes _**"If you have any better arrangement, we're all ears, darling.** **Or I can always..."**_

 _ **"Except letting Aira sit on your laps."**_ despite her nasal voice, Minori's voice held a firm tone, which combined with her mature aura, literally left no room for argument as Aira pouted.

 _ **"... Fine."**_ another grumble from Keto before he sat straight in his chair as the three women stood in their position.

 **"Okay, you lot looks good now."** said the butler as he looked into the **"** **Three, two, one!"**

The moment the flash of camera died down, the hologram had already disappeared as Yuuto's eyes held a faraway look before turned back to its previous piercing look as Caubac's smile increase a little bit.

"So I believe I have your trust, Sir 'True Sorcerer'?"

"... Drop that title." said Yuuto blankly yet cautiously "And yes, you have my trust... For now."

A loud long laugh escaped Caubac's throat as he clapped his hands loudly

"Marvelous! My information about 'Chaldea' has already arrived at your home." a bright yellow magic circle appeared under Caubac's feet as the man raised his hat a little bit "I will see you at a later time, Yuuto-kun! Send my regards to that kid Merem as well as Van-Fem!"

"Wait!" called Tatsuya loudly but the Dead Apostle Ancestor had already disappeared.

(End chapter)

* * *

 **Author's note: Fuck Orphan of Kos! Fuck that tough SOB and its bloody jumping pattern! Fuck its throwing! Fuck everything of it!** **┗(｀皿´)┛**

 **Anyway...**

 **Bloody hell! Writing the fighting scene for this chapter is so tiring. At least theoretically, one more chapter and I can finish this arc!** **＼＼\\(۶•̀ᴗ•́)۶/／／ Now what should do in the next update? Proceed straight to the end as well as the 'big talk' between the gardener and Miyuki and Honami? Or maybe give both our dear Ms. Shishou and Ms. Almighty Genius a little bit screen time and let them meet a cute little surprise? What to choose, what to choose, what to choose. And what about your opinions,my dear readers? Which one do you prefer? ( •́ ⍨ •̀)**

 **Well, that's all for now. And as usual, please read and review! Opinions are always**


	16. Chapter 14

_"... Can I sit here, kid?"_

 _"..."_

 _"*sigh*... Thing sure hit hard, isn't it?"_

 _"...She did what needed to be done willingly. Beside, sometimes the choice we are given is just no choice at all. One life for the whole town of people, how could she say no?"_

 _"But it still hurts, isn't it... To lose someone that you care."_

 _"Yeah... I'm gonna miss that infuriating yet endearing smirk of her."_

 _"Here, have a taste of this. Maybe it can somewhat lighten your mood up, kid. And throw that 'underage' stuff out of the window for today. As I said some time ago, 'If you're old enough to kill, you're old enough to drink'."_

 _"... And what the hell is this?"_

 _"... La Sonámbula. Tequila, lemon juice, chamomile syrup,_ _Peychaud's bitters_ _and_ _Xocolatl Mole bitters._ _Minori-chan once made this for me back then. She said it was a cocktail for the broken heart."_

 _"... This tastes strange... Yet soothing at the same time."_

 _"Yep. And cheer up, will ya? There was no way in hell she would want to see you brooding because of her death."_

 _"Yeah... I guess she wouldn't..."_

 _"... You know. I think you should find a girlfriend. It can help you..."_

 _"Oi..."_

 _"... Who knows, you may get yourself a pair of MILF who will cling to you like tenacious barnacles upon rocks!"_

 _"... If you don't want to eat out for the rest of your bloody life, I advice you to shut up and stop talking shit regarding my love life, you wanker of a brother."_

 _"Fine fine. I will shut up and stop giving you my valuable advices, you ungrateful little brat."_

* * *

 **Chapter 14**

Nervous.

For some unknown reason, Tsukasa Hajime was feeling a little bit nervous.

He knew the plan he had created for this surprised attack was flawless. By using surprise element and a large-scale attack on the school, Mibu Sayaka could slip in the archieve easily without any trouble and knowing the mindset of the black hair girl, she would just gather every single data in the archieve after a few minutes not finding anything that could help the non-magic people. After that, she could easily blend in the other students in the mist of chaos.

Yet he couldn't shake off that nervous feeling. Even the assurance from an on-field underling (who somehow happened to have a sore throat today for some unknown reasons) didn't help much. Maybe he should contact to that Mibu girl directly just to be sure.

As he thought about the black hair girl, Hajime couldn't help but let out a snort. Just like his _dear_ brother, the girl was so easily swayed to his cause with his Evil Eyes. Even though he didn't complain about it, a small part of his ego wished at least his victim would show some resistance before fully subdued to his power. He wanted to see the face of horror after realizing that their desperate attempts to shake off his power were all futile before they became mere puppets dancing along his tune.

*KNOCK KNOCK!*

The sound of someone knocking on the door stopped the leader of Blance Japanese branch from reaching his phone.

"Who's it?" The annoyance was evident in Hajime's tone as he glared haft-heartedly at the door "Just come in."

*KNOCK KNOCK!*

"I said come in!" Hajime could feel his temper raised a little bit.

*KNOCK KNOCK!*

But the answer he received was the repeated knocking sound, making Hajime's face darken. Shoving his chair back, Hajime angrily stomped toward the door. Whoever tried to get on his nerve, he would make them pay! With that in mind, he forcefully turned the doorknob...

"Guh!"

Whatever Hajime expected, he never expected a hard punch hit straight into his face and blew most of his front teeth away. As he felt onto his arse, a loud painful cry escaped his bloody mouth as his right ankle was crushed by a single stomp from his assailant.

" **Target acquired.** "

The voice of the sore-throated underling made Hajime's eyes widen as the crimson color of his assailant's hoodie was the last thing he managed to see before his view was covered with a bag and another punch to hit gut sent him to the land of unconsciousness.

* * *

The fight finally ended. As the wounded were being treated, the remaining (living) terrorists were being rounded up. However, that didn't mean all the problem went away with the fight.

"Miyamoto-san, we really need to talk to Watari-san." said Mayumi in a very desperate tone as the pinkish hair swordwoman just gave the Student Council's president a shrug

"Sorry, can't do that. He asked me not to let anyone disturb him until he's done with that Mibu girl."

Firstly, there was the Demon Wolf of Okinawa along with its headless rider standing in the middle of in the courtyard littered with corpses. One glare of the demonic beast was more than enough to make anyone who was courage enough to move into its sight fall onto their arse and frozen in fear, let alone trying to attack it. Even Tatsuya himself had trouble in looking directly at the beast for more than ten seconds without having the fear screaming at the back of his mind to look away.

And then there was this 'Bounded Field' the gardener had cast. Not only it jammed the phone signal, it also somehow literally rendered every single kind of communication to the outside world unavailable, even the internet! All the attempts to sneak out of the campus ground via the back gate or any other way met with failure as they were all stopped by an indestructible invisible wall that even the Elemental Sight couldn't see! And no matter what the students and instructor did to gain attention, all passerby just ignored them as if they were nothing but air!

In short, the First High now was literally trapped in a complete lockdown until the gardener dropped his Bounded Field.

Last but not least, Tatsuya knew they needed to get their hand on the leader of Blanche Japanese branch, Tsukasa Hajime, soon. While the gardener's Bounded Field had jammed all kind of communication, he would eventually become suspicious if the lines went silent for too long. At least Haruka-sensei had provided him the location of the headquarters so that had saved him some much valuable time.

"Then can you at least ask him to drop his 'Bounded Field'?" asked Tatsuya calmly, his black eyes looked straight into Musashi's grey eyes "We have wounded students that really need medical help that the school couldn't offer and we need to contact the authority to handle the the situation."

As well as evacuate others before calling his battalion to handle the demonic beast, thought Tatsuya grimly. And it was almost guaranteed to be very bloody given what it had done back in Okinawa. And of course, he needed all the information regarding Dead Apostle Ancestor that the gardener might have...

"Sorry, lad. I can't drop it just yet."

The unlocking sound of the infirmary's door stopped Tatsuya's thought from going any further as the gardener followed by Mash stepped out. In the place of his missing blazer now was a light brown vest as Primy sat on his right shoulder and let out an adorable yawn . A odd yet elegant cane, which Miyuki quickly recognized as the cane of the gardener's brother in her dream, was spun playfully in his left hand following the melody coming from the gardener's music player.

"And why is that, Watari-san?" asked Tatsuya tersely.

"Still have things to handle before I can drop it." shrugged the gardener uncaringly before he approached an opening window and jumped out to the courtyard, Musashi and Mash immediately followed suit. What did the gardener need to do more, Tatsuya wondered as his group hesitantly followed.

 **"Oooooowwwwwwwoooooooo!"**

A demonic howl soon answered his question the moment the gardener's whistle reached Tatsuya's ears. Almost instantly, all the color on the faces of his little sister along with Honami, Mayumi, Leo and Erika were drained away, their bodies were shaking in terror while for Tatsuya, he could feel the fear re-emerged in the back of his mind and violently tried to get out of the restraint his currently wavering wills had put on it.

* * *

"How're you doing, Lobo?" he asked jovially as the giant wolf approached him. Every step of it left a burning mark on the ground as the sound of its dragging chains could make any of its preys felt like death was approaching them. Its head held high with the pride and grace that was worthy of The King of Currumpaw.

A deep growl escaped Lobo's throat, its burning eyes glared hatefully at the group behind me at its headless rider brandished his strange swords

"Woah, easy there, Lobo." he raised his cane a little bit before Lobo could do anything, his right hand pat mane the gigantic wolf lightly "They're with me."

Such hate toward human but it couldn't be helped, he thought passively. He couldn't helped but hope that Ernest Thompson Seton wanker rot in hell for eternity. With an amused sigh, he turned back to the group in order to...

... Okay, maybe Lobo's aura of hate and vengeance was a little too much for Honami and these lads to handle up close. The group seemed like it took everything they had just to standing still, their faces held an expression of utter terror as their eyes didn't dare to look directly at Lobo. Even the Tatsuya lad looked slightly shaken up , which was quite a surprise given the impression of eternal calm regardless of situations he usually got everytime he saw the lad.

Weeeelllllllll at least he had managed to inform Mash and Musashi about Lobo just ten minutes ago so the duo seemed fine (Mashu still seemed a little bit uncomfortable though) or else, he would feel _reeeaaaaaalllllllyyyyy_ bad.

Hmm, now that he thought more about it. perhaps Musashi would never need his warning in the first place. The carefree female samurai would just come close and play with this 'gigantic pup' regardless of how dangerous it seemed anyway.

"Watari-san... you... " he raised his eyebrows a little bit as he saw Tatsuya's fist clenched tightly "... You are its master?"

He wanted to let out a snort after hearing that question but decided not to do it. Many Heroic Spirits, in general, were a bunch of the most prideful beings of humanity with some even possessed such gigantic arrogance and ego that calling them 'shithead' would be an insult to other shithead around the universe. Therefore, there was no bloody way they would acknowledge someone they believed to be lower than them as their 'master'. While Hessian Lobo here wasn't a Heroic Spirit, the pride of The King of Currumpaw would never let it bow to a mere 'human' like him. Unlike Musashi, the only reason the wolf followed his order for now was because of his Third Magic as well as he was the one providing prana for it.

"Literally, no." he replied almost playfully "But I am the one who summoned Lobo here and he listens to my request. So I guess it's close enough, eh?"

Ignoring the shocked look from the group of students, he turned back to Lobo as his head tilted slightly

"Anyway, no one touched the corpses, I presume?"

The headless rider raised his thumb up as the body felt like it want to nod considering the awkward movement of the torso. Looked rather amusing, he must admitted.

"Very good." he chuckled lightly. Time for these bastards to pay the price for ruining his garden.

With that in mind, he channeled a little bit of prana into the Bounded Field and sent a signal to all of his Black Keys around the school with fingers snap.

* * *

"... What in the world..." muttered Mari as she observed the interaction between the demonic beast and the gardener through a binocular from a balcony. The gardener was that terrifying beast's master?! Or else, how could he act so casually in front of that beast while said beast hadn't torn him as well as her group of friend down there apart?1

Suddenly, various screams echoed throughout the school followed by the sound of glass breaking caught her by surprise. Before she knew it, bloody terrorists corpses that were impaled and mutilated with strange black swords flew out from many windows toward the courtyard and floated in the air. The scene was so horrid that it took all of Mari's will not to throw up all of her lunch.

Suddenly, the area was lit up by dark green light as a gigantic magic circle. Zooming in the group on the ground, Mari could see a diamond-shaped saphire orb in the gardener's left hand. With an effortless hurl, the orb flew upward and floated in the air about one or two meter above the school's top floor. Turning back to the gardener, Mari could see he was muttering with his left hand raised up. Was he the one casting this? Where was his sequence? What exactly was he casting on such a large scale like that?

 **Kimi** no **ko** to om **oui h** odo/ The **more** I thin **k abo** ut you

A phantom voice echoed behind Mari's back nearly made her jumped, yet she found no one behind her. Gradually, more and more phantom voices made their appearance. Their voices mashed into each other and created a chaotic chant that Mari could barely follow what those voices trying to say in the melody

K **ono** na **mi** da kob **orer** u no/ m **y te** ars **are o** verflo **wing**

Cracks gradually appeared on the orb before it exploded and showered everything under it, from the corpses, burning vehicles to the school buildings, with a rain of light. The bright blue color of the rain of light contrasted with the dark green light of the gigantic magic circle on the ground turn the whole campus into a strangely majestic scenery.

Ak **enai** y **or** u no n **aka** hit **ori** / Wi **thou** t su **n alo** ne in t **he m** idle of **the ni** ght

Looking down, Mari found pale blue light was emitting from under the bandage on her left arm and gradually died out along with the aching feeling of her injury and her exhaustion. Hastily taking off the bandage, Mari looked at her arm in wonder as the long cut she was inflicted by a random terrorist had disappeared as if it had never existed in the first place! As she turned around, happy cheers of students mixed in the phantom chants could be heard as it was clear to her they were also healed. Was this what the gardener casting? How could a Healing Magic could be cast on such a large scale like this?!

 **Kimi** shi **ka m** iena **kute**.../ **Y** **ou ar** e all **I ca** n see...

When the chants finally came to its end and the light died down, Mari watched the scenery in marvel as all the corpses and everything of the previous conflict had completely disappeared as the garden had returned back to its former glory. Wind blew gently as it picked up the scent of flowers and scatter it into the air, thus bringing a soothing and calm feeling to the now peaceful scenery under the afternoon sun.

* * *

"Whew! Finally done!" The gardener stretched his arms a little bit before turning back "And you lot should close your mouth. Or else you might catch a fly."

This snapped the group of students out of their shock as they watched the surrounding area with wide eyes. All the destruction of the garden had disappeared along with all the corpses and other things like destroyed vehicles. Just what kind of magic had the gardener used, Tatsuya frowned deeply. Observing Leo and Erika, Tatsuya could see that their wounds in the previous fight with the abomination was no longer on their body. Some kind of unknown grand-scale Healing Magic? But that theory couldn't explained how the garden was restored back to its former glory.

And then those phantom voices echoing throughout the school, too. The black hair teen had checked the Information Dimension with his Elemental Sight and just like he had expected, nothing could be found on those phantom voice. Whatever they were or wherever they came from, Tatsuya could hypothesize that they, along with the gardener's constant playing music, had an important role in the gardener's large-scale feat.

"Ho, just as expected from Kiri-san." mused the gardener aloud as he looked at the screen of his phone before he turned back to Tatsuya's group "Okay, everything I need to look into is done! I will drop the Bounded Field and going home now. Have fun, lads."

With a finger snap, a black portal appeared in front of the gardener and ushered Musashi and Mash to step inside. Just when the gardener took a step forward...

"Wait, Watari-san!"

... the voice of Miyuki and Honami stopped him dead in his track.

"Yes?" The gardener raised his eyebrow slightly as Miyuki gathered all of her brave and stepped forward

"... Is... is this yours, Watari-san?" there was a hint of shakiness in Miyuki's voice as she showed him the lapel pin in the small velvet box.

Was the gardener her 'Savior-sama'? Or was he not? Miyuki could hear her heart beating loudly in her chest as the Guardian looked like she was ready to jump onto the young man to force an answer out of him. On the other side, the gardener narrowed his eyes slightly as he took out the lapel pin.

 _*KISHI!**KISHI!**KISHI!**KISHI!**KISHI!**KISHI!**KISHI!*_

Much to Honami's and the group of students' amazement, an emerald bird silhouette shot out from the pin and flew gracefully around Yuuto as it croaked merrily, as if it just met an old friend.

"... Where do you get this?"

All the playfulness in the gardener's voice vanished as he looked straight at Miyuki and Honami with his piercing gaze

"Is it yours?" pressed Miyuki. She really needed an answer now.

"Precisely, it belong to the Watarimono Family but yes, you can say it belongs to me since I am the last Watarimono." said Yuuto passively "Now please, tell me where do you get..."

"Fou!"

The gardener's pet suddenly let out a yelp as it pat on Yuuto's cheek with its front paw

"Eh? What is it, Primy?" Yuuto turned to his pet who suddenly leaped onto her left shoulder before taking a lick at Miyuki's cheek and jump back to the young man

"Fou! Foufoufou!"

"Huh?" Miyuki and Honami as well as Mayumi couldn't help but giggle a bit at the interaction between the white fluffy furball and the gardener as if he could fully understand it "What do you mean by that?"

"Foooouuuuuuuu. Fou! Fooouuuuu!"

"The little girl back in Okinawa Invasion?"

Seven words. And it was more than enough for Miyuki and Honami as the younger girl's view became blurry

"... Who... Wait a minute..." The gardener took a very close look at Miyuki and Honami before his frown gradually disappeared as it was replaced by pleasant realization "... Ah, now I see. So now it explains the familiar feeling I once felt about you."

With a snap of his fingers, a pen and a small pocket notebook appeared in his hands as he jotted down on a page before tearing it away.

"Here. Since it's likely the school will close down for 2-3 days to repair, come to my house tomorrow morning." he passed the paper to Miyuki with a tired yet sincere smile, which made all the blood in Miyuki and Honami rushed to their face much to Tatsuya's amusement "It's easier and better to talk that time"

"Can I come too?" The gardener raised his eyebrow at Mayumi's sudden request "Actually, there are a few thing I wish to discuss with you, Watari-san"

With a nonchalantly shrug, the gardener jotted down another paper and passed it to Saegusa girl before he turned back to the opening portal.

"Guess I will see you lot tomorrow then." the gardener raised his fedora hat slightly as a goodbye before turning to the gigantic wolf "Oh and Lobo, come with me. I have an offer for you."

With a demonic growl, the beast slowly stepped inside the now enlarged portal before it finally closed down and completely vanished. Looking down to the paper, Miyuki and Honami could see that aside from the address, there was another line on the bottom of the piece of paper.

 _'I look forward to our talk, and bring the woman back then along if she is still alive.'_

* * *

"Kya!" squealed Mash comically as she somehow fell out from the portal right after Musashi

"Ouch! Ouch Ouch! You're suffocating me with your, Mashu-chan!" yelled Musashi as she squirmed under the younger girl, her ability to breathe was temporary stopped by Mash's pair of 'mashmallow'.

"Ah! Sorry, Musashi-san! Ahhh~"

Okay, how the hell things could become so lewd like that? Pushing his dirty thought aside, he helped both the girl to stand up. At least the area of his home was rather empty so no one would notice the presence of a gigantic wolf and its headless. While the civilian's reaction could be quite amusing to watch, it can also bring in a few unnecessary annoyance.

Still, what a pleasant surprise in the end of a tiring and annoying day, he thought inwardly. To think he would meet two of the first three people he had saved since the time he returned to this World. Tomorrow was going to be very interesting.

"Watarimono Yuuto, I presume?"

A female voice kicked him out of his train of thought as he and his group turned to the source of the voice. Long blond hair tied into a pony tail gave her a simple yet attracting aura. Deep blue eyes that felt like it wanted to drown you in it. Her pale skin, her expressionless face and her white old Victorian dress with long sleeve coat gave her a very attracting yet almost doll-liked beauty.

"And you are?" he asked tersely

"Please to make your acquantaince. My name is **Violet Evergarden**." The blond hair girl moved her right foot backward as her hands picked up her dress slightly before she gave him a curtsy bow "I was sent here by Sir Caubac Alcatraz. From now on, I will serve you with everything I have and complete all of your requests. So please, use me as how you see fit."

So this was the 'information' the twenty-seventh Dead Apostle Ancestor had mentioned, huh? And why the bloody hell did he feel a lot of headaches were going to chase after him from now on?

* * *

With a sigh, Kazama Harunobu threw his pen down onto his table with a tired look. Finally done with that hell of paperwork. Now he could at least enjoy a well-deserved rest, no matter how brief it was. He could go through wars any days of his life with no problem but there was a limit to the amount of paperwork he could take for a day. Seriously, now he just wanted to a glass of sake or may be lie down...

*RING!* *RING!* *RING!* *RING!* *RING!* *RING!*

"My life hates me." The leader of the 101 Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion grumbled to himself as he picked up the emergency line

"Who is speaking... Tatsuya? Why do you..."

"..."

Kazama's face immediately paled

"WHAT?! THE DEMON WOLF OF OKINAWA REAPPEARED?! AND IT HAS A MASTER?! WHERE DID YOU GET THIS INTEL?"

* * *

"Your stew is very delicious, Maria" the violet hair woman said lightly as she put her cup down with a pleasant sigh "Just exactly like how I like"

"Thank you for your compliment, Ms. Scathach. It all thanked to Master Yuuto's teaching." came the submissive female voice before she announced the desert of the course, her dedicated mechanical hands reached forward and put the two dishes on the table " _Irish Chocolate Pots de Crème_ for you, Ms. Scathach. And Lemon Ricotta Granita for you, Mistress Da Vinci."

"Thank you, Maria." said Da Vinci passively and the automaton quietly returned to the kitchen, leaving her alone with the guest. As the silence took reign of the luxury dining room, the only sound could be heard was the sound of utensils and the soothing music coming from a phonograph in the corner.

Putting down her fork, Scathach picked her glass up and took a small sip of wine.

"Have you made any process with my request, _genius_?"

Da Vinci just gave her a snort of disdain after she savored the taste of lemon on the tip of her tongue

"Of course I have, unlike _you_. How you could teach those barbaric Celts into legends, I could never understand. By pure luck, perhaps."

Scathach's expression didn't change even a bit despise the insult thrown directly at her

"Then what took you so long?"

"Because your request is not my _top_ priority." Da Vinci's well-hidden smirk couldn't escape Scathach's sharp eyes. "And you only ask me to finish it before his birthday."

Scathach's daunting look didn't faze the self-proclaimed Almighty Genius in the slightest as she continued to enjoyed her next bite a little bit more before she fired the next question, which had been bugging her since the day Scathach came back to this villa.

"Still, what is your purpose for creating that?"

"For Yuuto's birthday, of course. And why would you even care anyway? You have only cared about inventing and trying new things as well as reaching to new limits of magecraft. Just like any typically magus."

No matter how much Da Vinci tried to ignore, the haughty smirk Scathach giving her still infuriated her to no end.

"Because it concerns Yuuto and I can care about whatever I want!" Da Vinci's voice harden "You and I both know why Yuuto keeps using his music as his aria to manipulate his Marble Reality and cast his Magics on large scale as well as **purposely** **distracting** his mind and concentration at the same time. Why would you want to create a Mystic Code that helps him to..."

Before the question could be fully formed, a gap suddenly appeared in the air above the table. In a blink of eye, Scathach's crimson spears and Da Vinci's gauntlet appeared in their hands...

 _"Itai!"_

... but before any of them could do anything, a small humanoid figure fell out from the gap before it disappeared as the figure let out a cute yelp the moment it hit the table hard

 _"Ugh! That old man! What did he... "_ said the small figure in Japanese as she tried to get up from her position. Her long beautiful black hair was stained dirty as her white dress had various blood stains on it

And the moment the child's eyes came into Scathach's and Da Vinci's view, both of them literally _froze_.

Those eyes... Unwavering black with a very pale inhuman golden shade that sometimes could make a person felt like they were staring at the abyss itself. The pair of eyes that both of them were too familiar with and even came to love.

 _"I... I'm sorry! It's not my fault I swear! That old man dropped me here! Not because I wanted to!"_

The cute voice of the panicked little girl snapped Scathach and Da Vinci out of their shock. She was a Japanese?

 _"... Eh... hello?"_ said the child hesitantly "... _You don't know Japanese?"_

A brief look was exchanged between the two beauties before Scathach approached the child after dismissing her spears

 _"We understand, little one."_ said Scathach gently in Japanese, which helped the little girl relax a little bit _"Tell me, little one. Who are you?"_

The little girl bowed her head at the older woman

 _"My name is **Watarimono Kureha**! Do you know where I can find my daddy and mommy?" _

"And who is your parents, Kureha?" asked Da Vinci cautiously the moment Yuuto's surname reached her ears

A very small hint of hatred appeared briefly in Kureha's eyes before they beamed proudly as she answer.

"My mommy is miss Violet Evergarden! And my daddy's name is Yuuto, Watarimono Yuuto!"

(End chapter)

* * *

 **Author's note: This update was finished 1 week ago in fact and I intended to release it on the 1-year anniversary of this story but in the end, I decided to release it early since it would be a little bit cruel to my readers. At least basically, this arc is finally done! Yay me! In the best scenario, the next chapter will start the mid-arc period and the 'bonding time' as well as some more bits of Yuuto's past**

 **Anyway, please read and review!**


	17. Interlude 2

_Humanity..._

 _... they are becoming weaker and weaker..._

 _... What a pity..._

 _... At least... my host... my master... is strong..._

 _... Still..._ _His lack of ambition and his Origin... even though they allow him to wield me fully... rather than a fragment of me... like others before him..._

 _... it is still truly disheartening..._

* * *

 **Interlude 2:**

"Ugh... What the hell..."

With a painful groan, Tsukasa Hajime slowly opened his heavy eyes. Gone the familiar scene of his room at his HQ as the dimming light of the flickering candles greeted him. The once lively colors were replaced by the cold dead color of stones walls. Shaking his head vigorously, Hajime tried to moved his limps but the results he got were the clanking sound of chains and the grips around his wrists and ankles tightened, forcing a painful grunt out of his throat. Just who the fuck put him here in this place?! He swore...

 **"... Tell me... Have you ever envied someone?"**

The dark voice mixed with amusement and a hint of madness snapped Hajime out of his anger and brought his gaze toward the bar gate of his room. With a nerve-grating sound, the door was opened as a silhouette now became visible in the darkness.

 **"No. Do not answer. There is no need for you to."**

A wind came through the tiny hole of window, making the light candle flickered a little bit and briefly revealed the dirty dark green cape of the silhouette before the darkness once again shielded it away from Hajime's view.

 **"After all, envy was what pushed you to become a part of this pathetic Blanche. Isn't that right?"**

The deafening sound of the thunders outside mixed with the bloodthirsty and aggrieved screams echoed from the dark hallways made Hajime jerked in terror. The fact that Hajime hadn't dyed his paint with the color of his poop was the miracle itself.

 **"Sorry for the violent 'pickup' my '** **colleague' gave you. Oh please, don't say anything. I don't actually wish to hear your opinion.** **"**

Even though Hajime could detect a hint of amusement briefly appeared in the voice, it wasn't able to lessen his fear in the slightest.

 **"It was but an automatic reflex of manner and hospitality. Like an involuntary reply to someone calling out your name."**

The silhouette took a step forward as the darkness shifted around behind menacingly. Hajime could swear he saw a maddening glint flashed in that darkness. For a brief moment, the courage inside Hajime managed to get out of his fear's grip and allowed him to scream defiantly at the silhouette.

"Yo-you piece of shit! Wh-who the fuck are you?!"

A crazy and malicious grin filled with hatred appeared from the darkness immediately made Hajime regret his act of defiance as his courage was quickly reduced to dust.

 **"Who am I, you ask?"**

For every step the silhouette got closer to him, Hajime could feel overwhelming fear gradually gnawing his mind and sanity a little bit more

 **"I am just a vengeful soul seek to carve all thing indelible upon itself. And for this place..."**

A flash of lightning was enough to let Hajime's eyes caught the dirty and very pale white color of the hair under the green fedora hat. With another step, the silhouette fully came out of the darkness and Hajime could feel the subtle yet suffocating aura coming from the man in green suit and green cape.

 **"Sinner by the name of Tsukasa Hajime..."**

The unknown man raised his left arm with a grand motion, almost invitingly and even proudly

 **"... Welcome... to the Prison Tower on the Isle of Despair,** **Château d'If** **! A place beyond love and hate , thus any soul may be imprisoned here!"**

The smell of urine invaded Hajime's nostril but he couldn't pay attention to it, for his fear had already frozen his body and his mind

 **"Until you wish to start answering my Master's question..."**

In the end, the demonic and resentful screeches were more than enough to force Hajime's survival instinct flared back to life as he desperately tried to yanked his limped away from the chains. But no matter how hard he tried...

 **"... Please... Enjoy it to its fullest extend."**

... the grips only tightened even more before more and more 'residents' came through the door by following the warm pulse of his soul.

The very thing they resented and envied.

* * *

 **Masshiro de iru touki mitai na/ Like unblemished porcelain**

 **Koe o shite ita fuyu no nioi da/ I raised my voice to the scent of winter**

With a tired sigh, he dropped the papers in his hand down onto the table. This document about her arms while was very fascinating to read, it was also tiresome to read it given the large quantity of pages. As least he had good music to relax and good drinks to enjoy.

"You seem busy, Master"

Ho, a drinking buddy came right when he decided to have a shot. Convenient. With that thought, he sluggishly stood up from his chair and approached the built-in bar of his workshop.

"Did our man talk, my friend?"

Hmm. Which one to choose... This? No. This one? Nah, too british. How about... Nope, too fucking 'Murica. Ah, yes. Perfect.

"They always talk." came the even reply from the man in green clothes as he sat down in another sofa close to his seat. "All the answer he gave are stored in this... device you had given me, Master."

"Thank you." he put two empty wine glasses on the table "As promised, you can do whatever you want with that prisoner and Château. Still..."

"Oh, no worry. He will go through Halls of Judgement. Let's hope he won't die too early or bored me too soon." a twisted yet jovial laugh escaped the man's throat "I must say, Master, that Château d'If you created for me is truly magnificent."

Ah, his friend really knew his way with words, eh?

"I aim to please, my friend." he gave an exaggerating bow before he opened the wine bottle in his hand and let the beautiful deep colored liquid flow into the glasses, carefully not to let the man saw the label on the bottle "Here. Can you guess where this wine came from?"

The man's crazed grin was replaced by a pleasant surprise expression the moment he took a sniff at his glass

"Ah, wonderful and very distinctive aroma with a majestic deep color. How long has it been since the last time I shared this with Haydee, I wonder?" The man's eyes now possessed a reminiscent look as he stared at the fireplace "Château Lafite Rothschild Pauillac, isn't it?"

With a chuckle, he turned the label to his guest before lifting the other glass up

"As expected from the very Count of Monte Cristo. And I am honored that your accept my offer. Welcome to the Watarimono Household, **Edmond Dantes**."

Somehow, Dantes managed to express both amusement and expectation in a bark of laughter before the most famous avenger in the history raised his glasses up

"From a Count to a butler for The Sorcerer, eh? Just don't make me bored and regret my decision,Master. Kuhahahahahahaha!"

* * *

"Is that so, Hayama?" In her favorite luxury chair, the woman in long violet dress asked lightly as her old loyal butler stood in front of her

"Yes, Maya-sama. According to Minami-chan's report, the one who had saved Miya-sama as well as her children and Honami-san invited four of them to his place. He is also the master of the Demon Wolf of Okinawa. At the moment, the 101 Battalion is at the house of Miya-sama's children to set up and prepare for an operation to gain intel on this Watarimono Yuuto with Tatsuya's help. Lieutenant Colonel Kazama will command the ops himself. The situation at there is very tense given the circumstances." said Hayama in his usual respectful tone as he presented a tablet to the head of the Yotsuba Clan. "I have taken the liberty to get the information about him for you, Maya-sama."

"Very good, Hayama... Hmm... Watarimono Yuuto..." Maya observed the image of the First High's gardener with a look of wonder before she skimmed through the files "... Is this all you got, Hayama?"

The old butler bowed apologetically

"I'm afraid so, Maya-sama. Given what had happened to Yakumo-san's informant the day before, I do not wish to take a risk and create an unnecessary war with the V&V Industry, especially with the current circumstance of the Four Leaves Technology. I am sorry."

Maya shook her head lightly as she elegantly walked to her desk for a minute before returned to the seat.

"There is no need to apologize, Hayama. You have done well. That aside, there is a task I need you to do."

"And what is it, milady?"

"I want you to give this to Minami-chan." A violet envelop was put on the table in front of the old's butler, much to Hayama's well-hidden surprise "Ask her to extend this personal invitation from me to Watarimono-san for I wish to seek an audience with him at the Yotsuba compound."

"At once, Maya-sama. Is there anything else you need?"

"That's all for now. Now leave _us_ be, Hayama."

With a small nod, the butler quietly retreated from his mistress's room before the matriarch of the Yotsuba Clan let her tired body sink into the comfy chair. After pouring a cup of tea for herself, she turned to the empty seat on the other side of the small table or more precisely...

"Did you hear that, dear? The master of Okinawa's Demon Wolf just decided to come to light. It's going to be very interesting from now on."

... a very well-preserved grey fedora hat laid quietly in said empty seat. Such simple thing yet it held the emotion that even her twin's magic couldn't erase.

"Watarimono Yuuto..." Yotsuba Maya let the name roll on her tongue while her eyes adopted a faraway look "... He looks quite similar to you back when you saved me, you know?"

Gingerly picking up her cup, Maya enjoyed the tea's sweet aroma a bit before she took a sip from it, though the act couldn't hide her mysterious smile that could send chill to any lesser man

"... I hope whoever this young man is, he isn't your son, dear. Or else... I won't be very happy if the next time we see each other only to know that you forgot about my promise while seeing some random wench stood in place where she doesn't deserve at the same time... fufufu... "

(Interlude end)

* * *

 **Author's note: Yeah, I said it. Edmond Dantes is the most famous Avenger. Just because Jalter is your waifu doesn't mean she is the most famous Avenger! Kuhahahahahahaha!**

 **Anyway, joke aside...**

 **Bloody hell, it has been 1 year since the first chapter of this fanfic was uploaded. The road I have traveled with this fanfic while not really long comparing to many writers who are _waaayyy_ better than me, it still has been a very memorable one so far. To everyone who have followed me as well as this fanfic so far, I wish to send my sincerest thank you to you for supporting this fanfic and reviewing it until now.**

 **In my profile/bio, I added a link to the (only) artwork of this fanfic drawn by a wonderful friend of mine. She also pointed out how Yuuto's eyes made his original description disturbingly similar to Tatsuya's and helped me changing it in the fic. If you see the artwork, please leave some opinions in the review for they are all appreciated.**

 **Hmm... If I used Gudao or maybe Chaotic Gudako back then instead of an OC, perhaps this fanfic would get more view? Granted the fanfic would be very short since Chaotic would just destroy and corrupt Mahoukaverse but hey, it's still cool.**

 **On a side note, the pole is now officially closed. We are going to have 'The Girl Who Summons Stars' arc in this fanfic. Time for Apocalypse, muwahahahaha!**

 **Well, that's all for now. See Please, read an review!**

 **Oh, and remember, fellas! *inhale***

 **RATE UP IS A LIE!**

 **P/s:** **:** **imgur dot com/ PAxdnSe** **(replace the 'dot' and erase the space) since for some reasons, the link to the artwork refused to appear on the profile. How annoying.**


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